Cricket is known often to have acted as the bridge that connected India-Pakistan in troubled times but there were instances when even the great Sachin Tendulkar's shots evoked no applause from the crowd across the border.

Former Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman and senior diplomat Shaharyar Khan says before the 1999 series it was winning that mattered and not the skill and art of cricket.

Post-1999 things changed and perhaps for the first time the attitude of fans and players of the two countries underwent a sea change.

"Something had changed in crowd attitudes. Only a few years earlier a Bangalore crowd had whistled and screamed invectives at Saeed Anwar and Aamer Sohail in an ICC Champions Trophy match and Pakistan boundaries were received in pin-drop silence," he wrote in the book 'Shadows across the playing field' co-authored by former United Nations under-secretary-general Shashi Tharoor.

"The same sullen attitude was true when Indian teams played in Pakistan. I recall being acutely embarrassed when Sachin Tendulkar's brilliant stroke play evoked no appreciation from the spectators," he said.

"But during the 1999 tour, a certain maturity from the crowds witnessing India-Pakistan contests was apparent," he said of the bilateral series held after a gap of 10 years "against the backdrop of acute tension".

"The teams interacted sportingly on field and even the crowd trouble after Tendulkar's run-out at Kolkata was not aimed against the Pakistani team but was essentially a show of frustration," Shaharyar added.

The former PCB boss, born in Bhopal, also recalled the threats Pakistan team received from protesters who were against the revival of cricketing ties between the two countries.

... contd.