Vin­ode Mam­chan

The West In­dies crick­eters both cur­rent and past all cel­e­brat­ed with the Pak­istan crick­et team, as they reached the mile­stone of 400 Test match­es dur­ing the cur­rent open­ing match of the Haeir Cup Test se­ries at the Dubai In­ter­na­tion­al Sta­di­um in the Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates (UAE).

The first day/night Test match be­tween the two coun­tries co­in­cid­ed with the Pak­istani's 400th Test and to mark the oc­ca­sion the Pak­istan Crick­et Board (PCB) pre­sent­ed com­mem­o­ra­tive medals to play­ers from both coun­tries on the open­ing day, Fri­day.

Dur­ing the lunch break, chief se­lec­tor of the Pak­istan team In­za­mam ul Haq, ac­com­pa­nied by fel­low se­lec­tor and for­mer off-spin­ner Tauseef Ahmed vis­it­ed the press area, where they cut a huge cake to mark the oc­ca­sion.

For­mer West In­dies cap­tain and leg­endary bats­man Sir Vi­vian Richards cur­rent­ly do­ing tele­vi­sion com­men­tary on the se­ries, was present to par­take in the pro­ceed­ings and to per­son­al­ly con­grat­u­late the men, he would have played against.

Six­ty four years ago, Pak­istan played their First Test against In­dia in Del­hi.They did not make a great start to their Test ca­reer, as they lost the match by an in­nings and 70 runs.

For­mer cap­tain and fast bowler Waqar You­nis said, "I am very proud of hav­ing played for this coun­try not on­ly as a cap­tain but as a play­er and as a coach and been a com­men­ta­tor too. I have al­ways backed my coun­try and I feel proud of it.

Waqar then went on to elab­o­rate why it is so spe­cial. "I was just look­ing at the sta­tis­tics from the 1970s to 1980s and half of the 90s and we can see that Pak­istan have done re­al­ly done well in Test match crick­et. We are now start­ing with the pink ball and that is al­so some­thing new. It's nice we have tak­en the step which is al­so his­to­ry and hence it is a very good, proud day."