Pakistan's only cricket museum – hidden away at a ground that hosted India's first international win

I’ve always believed Lahore is the cultural capital of Pakistan. Famed for its architecture, one of its lesser-known marvels is the Lahore Gymkhana Cricket Ground, the second oldest cricket ground in the South Asian subcontinent.

The cricket ground is nestled in the Bagh-e-Jinnah. Because I live near the garden, it was my morning routine to walk through the park. Sometimes I approached the boundary of the ground and watched the golden hours of the morning illuminate the lofty colonial architecture. But it had just never occurred to me to cross inside and enter the building.

Until one pleasant spring day, I relented to my curiosity and crossed the boundary with a camera in hand.

I discovered a vast ground and a magnificent pavilion. The pavilion is in log-house style and built of imported oak. It was designed by G Stone and Bahi Ram Singh, a great architect reputed for his designs in the British Raj.

In its style, the pavilion closely resembles the Punjab Exhibition Hall (Tollinton Market) on the Mall Road next to Anarkali Bazaar.

The first to greet me was a plaque on the central door, which narrated 130 years of cricket in the subcontinent and provided some useful information about the Lahore Gymkhana Cricket Ground itself.

Apparently, the ground used to be a balloon ascent site in the early 19th century. In 1880, the site became a cricket ground and the phenomenal pavilion was erected around the same time to service the new found sports complex.

When I saw the inscription “Lahore Gymkhana Cricket Museum & Archives” on the front of the pavilion, a thrill of excitement coursed through me. It was the first time I’d ever heard of a cricket museum in Pakistan, even though it is the most popular sport in the country.

I tried to enter the building, but it was too early and the offices were closed. Spotting a worker on the pitch, I asked him about the timings of the building and he told me to come back tomorrow.

I came back the next day in the late morning at 11 am, keen to learn more about the history of Pakistan’s most popular sport. Najam Latif and Javed Zaman Khan awaited me at the pavilion.

Mr Latif founded Pakistan’s first cricket museum at Lahore Gymkhana in 2010. He is a cricket historian, curator and archivist, who worked with Fazal Mahmood, one of Pakistan’s early cricketers and "the Oval Hero", on his autobiography, From Dusk to Dawn. Javed Zaman Khan was a first-class cricketer of the 1960s, and he now serves as the secretary of the Lahore Gymkhana Cricket Club.

As I sat down next to these gentlemen, they began to tell me the history of the Lahore Gymkhana Cricket Ground and the story of cricket in the subcontinent.

I found out two years after the establishment of the cricket ground in 1880, the first turf wickets were laid in soil directly imported from Worcestershire, England. From then until 1910, the cricket ground was used to host weekly matches among the staff of Governor House in Lahore, which is near the ground on the other side of the Mall Road.

I learned that from its very inception, the cricket ground played host to the defining games of the colonial era. The British Army and World XI played their first official match here. Most of World XI’s players were from Gloucestershire and Lancashire and the Army team was made up of 87 Punjab, 15 Sikh and King’s Regiment.

In 1923, Muslim and Sikh teams played each other for the first time in a first-class match, and three years later the cricket ground hosted India’s first international cricket match when Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and the British Army played against each other.

The more Mr Latif and Mr Khan told me, the more I was astounded by the significance of the ground and pavilion.

The Ranji Trophy championship, one of India’s first cricket championships, started on this cricket ground. In 1934, the Northern India team under the captaincy of George Abell played against the Indian army in the first season of Ranji Trophy.

Three years later, the Indian team under the captaincy of Syed Wazir Ali competed with Australia and won. This was the first Indian victory in an international Test match – the start of a legacy.

Then, in 1945, Northern India played against Southern Punjab in the final and seventh season of Ranji Trophy, marking the bittersweet end of the oldest domestic cricket tournament in India.

As I processed this information, I couldn’t help but wonder, how I had managed to miss all this before, and who else was strolling by this ground without realising what they were missing?

As Mr Latif and Mr Khan continued, it became clear to me that this ground was, in fact, one of the most important places in Pakistan. After Partition, the cricket ground became part of Pakistan and witnessed the fraught early history of the nation.

In December 1947, the Quaid-e-Azam Relief Fund sponsored matches to raise funds to help Partition refugees. Western Punjab and Sindh teams played against each other to help citizens of the new nation. It was also the first recorded first-class match on the soil of Pakistan.

The cricket ground became the first witness to the glory days of cricket in Pakistan. In 1948, it became the first headquarters of Board of Control for Cricket in Pakistan. Likewise, the Pakistan Eaglet Society, a squad of promising young cricketers who trained in England and played against the clubs there, found a home on the ground in 1951.

I discovered the relevance of this ground not just to Pakistan but also to the rest of the world. In January 1955, Lahore Gymkhana obtained international caliber by becoming the 35th official cricket Test centre of the world. Pakistan played against India here, in the first official Test match.

After that, Pakistan competed with New Zealand in October of that same year. Pakistan and West Indies played the third and last official Test match in March 1959.

Unfortunately, the ground did not maintain its status as an international cricket host after that. Rival stadiums such as the newly-built Gaddafi Stadium and the historic Eden Gardens in Kolkata, India, diverted the use and attention that the Lahore cricket ground had received earlier.

The brand new, state-of-the-art Gaddafi Stadium dwarfed the Lahore Gymkhana in prominence. Similarly, the Eden Gardens, the biggest cricket ground in South Asia, far exceeded Bagh-e-Jinnah in size and capacity. The Lahore Gymkhana Cricket Ground grew emptier, losing itself in the act of recalling its past.

I was saddened to learn the cricket ground fell into ravage and disrepair in the 1960s to ‘80s, which irrevocably damaged the historic cricket centre. I walked into the central hall of the pavilion, where I saw group photos of 18th and early 19th century cricketers. Here Mr Latif told me these photographs and the rest of the historical record had succumbed to neglect until some of it was recovered in 2000.

Two years later, he found historical records wasting away in the pavilion. He told me that if these records had been preserved, they would have been a valuable resource for the cricket culture before Partition.

Luckily, Mr Latif was determined to preserve this era and the rest of cricket history from the dustbin of time. He strived to take away some of the gloom from the cricket pavilion by transforming it into Pakistan’s first ever cricket museum.

The process was not easy and required a colossal amount of effort on part of Mr Latif, who became a the hands-on curator and archivist at the museum.

Mr Latif recalled how he knocked on the doors of veteran cricketers and avid cricket fans, whom he knew collected and possessed objects like photographs, newspaper clippings, magazines, uniforms and anything else relating to cricket.

Once the management of the cricket pavilion approved his project, he initiated the collection in 2003, and his original findings came to constitute the library section of the cricket museum.

In the next few years, Mr Latif managed to collect hundreds of objects, such as score books, autographed bats and balls, and the personal belongings of legendary cricketers. These artifacts enhanced the museum and initiated the long and formidable task of documenting Pakistan’s cricket history.

I resonated with the history of the museum when I saw bats signed by national players like Fazal Mahmood, Imtiaz Ahmad, Hanif Muhammad, Shujauddin, Khalid Qureshi, Saeed Ahmed, Khalid Hassan and SF Rehman.

There was also a ball signed by Don Bradman, the Australian cricketer, widely acknowledged as one of the best batsmen of all time.

The personal belongings of cricketers were also on display, such as an Eaglets badge donated by former cricketer Sultan Mahmood, a Lord’s necktie of A H Kardar, a MCC necktie of Fazal Mahmood, and a Cambridge cap and blazer used by Majid Khan in the ‘70s, which had originally belonged to A S Block, who used it from 1928 to 1929.

Finding myself in the presence of objects famous cricketers had touched, worn and used made me feel closer, more bonded to the games, teams and stars of bygone eras.

But I knew the artifacts in the museum went beyond individual players. I fully understood the team effort and international cooperation cricket has always represented to its fans and followers.

I saw rare images of games, such as the 1886 Ambala vs Lahore game, which took place at the Lahore Gymkhana Cricket Ground. A group photo of the Indian and Australian teams in 1936 struck me because it was India’s first international victory in cricket. The photo came to life when I saw it had been signed by the cricketers themselves.

The timeline of the museum extended from cricket in colonial India to the game’s dominance in the Pakistani national consciousness.

I saw here a slip fielding cradle, over a hundred years old, which players had once used for fielding practice. At the same time, I saw through the modern camera lens of FE Chaudhry, Pakistan’s most celebrated press photographer, who used to take first-action photographs in the MCC vs Pakistan match in 1951.

Every object represented a person, an era, and an aspect of cricket unrivaled by the players who came before or after it.

But the artifact that caught my attention the most was a 1945 photograph at Islamia College Lahore. In the photograph, Nazar Muhammad, Pakistan’s first opening batsman, is seen with Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of the country.

It is believed to be Jinnah’s only picture with a cricketer in Pakistan – the museum’s masterpiece.

I would never have happened upon this magnificent historical archive, had it not been for the dedication of Mr Latif and other contributors. To think the memory of this great sport could have so easily been reduced to rotting wood and termite dust, lost forever.

For now, Mr Latif is focused on constructing memories to make a hall of fame for cricket enthusiasts in Pakistan.

– All photos by author.