Re-Rewind - On second thoughts: Imran Khan's Pakistan

The legendary West Indies side of the 80s never managed to beat them, yet Pakistan's greatest side are nowhere near cricket's pantheon.

Modern Test cricket can be akin to the school playground: the batting bullies prey upon frail bowlers who are given little or no support by both the authorities and their culture. But at least the damage has a natural limit: sticks and stones may break your bones, but X-rated figures will never hurt you. It was different in the 1980s, when West Indies' army of fast bowlers turned Test cricket into a war zone. They were armed with so much more than sticks and stones - when they brutalised England inside three days in Sabina Park in 1986 Wisden Cricket Monthly described it as "cricket's equivalent to the Somme". But amid the rubble and bodies left in their wake, one opponent stood proud and unbeaten. In three Test series against the otherwise omnipotent Windies in the late 80s and early 90s, Pakistan drew 1-1 each time.

That West Indies side is justly in cricket's pantheon, along with the contemporary Australians, the Invincibles, the lost South Africans of the 70s and England in the mid 50s. Yet the side they could not break are nowhere to be seen. The cornered tigers of 1992, who won the World Cup in such spectacular style, are the most celebrated side in Pakistan's history. But they only peaked for 15 giddy days: Imran's side did it for nearly 15 years. And, without Imran, the new breed were savaged in the Caribbean in 1992-93. Although there was crossover between the sides, they were essentially different in nature: the World Cup winners had an injection of youth in Inzamam-ul-Haq, Aqib Javed, Mushtaq Ahmed, Aamir Sohail and Moin Khan. Imran's 80s outfit were not so much cornered tigers as streetwise foxes, experienced, cute, and trusted by very few.

The only other sides to draw a series with West Indies in that period were India and New Zealand, each at home, but when they went to the Caribbean they were mangled. Not Pakistan. Their bald record suggests a very special side: they were the only team to win a Test in the Caribbean in the 80s, the only team to avoid defeat in a series in the Caribbean between 1974 and 1995, the only team to win a series in India between 1985 and 2000, and they did not lose a series outside Australasia (which, given the appreciable bounce, is the most unnatural habitat for a subcontinental batsman) between 1982 and 1993.

In that 11-year period they lost just 10 out of 80 Tests and, if their win-ratio in that time (33%, or 26 out of those 80 Tests) precludes the award of greatness, they were still an extremely formidable side. And at home - two defeats and 18 wins from 39 games - they were almost unbeatable. That leads us to the other, inevitable, caveat: umpiring. Before the advent of neutral umpires it was felt that outsiders were about as likely to get an LBW against Pakistan in Pakistan as they were a warm welcome in a redneck bar. Yet the statistics are not too damning. While Pakistan were given 164 LBWs to their opponents' 78 in the 80s, those only accounted for 21% of Pakistan's wickets as against 17% of their opponents. The statistics lend some support to a long-held view of partial officiating, but they cannot discredit this side's achievements.

This was a team that had almost everything, based around their two contrasting champions: Imran Khan and Javed Miandad, lover and streetfighter, stallion and rapscallion, regal leader and rascally lieutenant. Not that they were alone; quality and ruggedness oozed from every pore. There was an ultra-patient top order, including Mudassar Nazar, the resourceful Ramiz Raja and Shoaib Mohammad, whose methodology made Chris Tavare seem skittish; the majestic middle-order pair of Miandad and the bad-wicket genius Salim Malik, buttressed by Imran at No7 and the wicketkeeper-hitter Saleem Yousuf at No8. Then there was the most beautifully varied bowling attack imaginable: Imran and Wasim Akram, swinging and reverse-swinging the ball at paint-stripping pace from different angles, and the magical legspinner Abdul Qadir. So lean was the rest of the body that they could even carry traces of flab: the roles of sixth batsman and fourth bowler were never really filled.

Their battles with West Indies, in three series in 1986-87, 1987-88 and 1990-91, are forgotten epics of the game. In an age when flat pitches and high scores predominated, these were revelatory dogfights, low-scoring scraps of such quality and artistic integrity that they might have been produced by HBO: in four of the nine Tests the first-innings difference was 25 or under, and only one of 35 innings exceeded 400. Each time Pakistan won the first Test of a series; each time West Indies roared back like champions; each time Pakistan resisted an almost violently turning tide to emerge from the series with a draw. It is important to note that Viv Richards missed four of those nine Tests but, by the same token, Miandad, every bit as central to his side's runscoring - and, almost more importantly, identity - as Richards, and Malik also missed games.

All three were present for the first Test at Faisalabad in 1986-87 when Pakistan recovered from a first-innings deficit of 89 to rout West Indies by 186 runs, with Imran (4 for 30) and Qadir (6 for 16) shredding West Indies for 53, then their lowest-ever total. They fought back to batter Pakistan in the next Test, hustling them out for 131 and 77, and the series was drawn when Pakistan, chasing 213 to win the final Test, held on grimly at 125 for seven, with Imran and Tauseef Ahmed surviving the last hour and a half as the walls closed in.

Seventeen months later Pakistan began the return series with another crushing victory, by nine wickets, thanks mainly to stunning performances from Imran (11 for 121 in the match) and Miandad (an epic seven-hour 114). The second Test was drawn, with the last man Qadir surviving the final five deliveries after Pakistan had called off their improbable chase of 372 to end on 341 for nine. Then came a classic third Test: Pakistan's 309 played West Indies' 306 before Pakistan sneaked to 262. Chasing 266, West Indies looked dead and buried at 207 for eight, but Jeff Dujon stonewalled and the No10 Winston Benjamin cuffed them to an improbable victory that kept their proud unbeaten record alive. Ironically it was Pakistan who had cause to doubt the umpiring: Qadir had three huge shouts for the ninth wicket turned down and was so piqued that he punched a heckler, eventually settling out of court so that he could return to Pakistan.

When West Indies returned to Pakistan, in 1990-91, the hosts had lost a Qadir and found a Waqar Younis. It turned out to be a decent trade, and he took nine wickets as Pakistan breezed to victory by eight wickets in the first Test despite only three players reaching double figures in their first innings: Shoaib (86 in eight hours), Malik (102) and Imran (73 not out). History repeated as West Indies cantered home by seven wickets in the second Test, and again in the third as Imran - just as in 1986-87 - ensured a draw by batting five hours for an unbeaten 58 on the final day.

It was fitting that the last word went to Imran, because he lorded over these contests like a colossus. Despite a series of ailments he was Pakistan's only ever-present in those three series (West Indies had five). Nobody on either side got near his 45 wickets at the blistering average of 14.87, and he added 356 runs at 32.36 for good measure. At the age of 38, this was his last significant act in Test cricket. He could retire safe in the knowledge that he had not lost the final battle, and that he had never lost the war.