31 st October 1984 was a memorable day in world history because of the unfortunate assassination of Indira Gandhi, the then Indian Prime Minister. Gandhi was shot by her own security guards in her residence and it created huge aftermath including a riot for the next few days.
It also impacted the cricket world as India was in the middle of a busy cricketing schedule. They were touring Pakistan and scheduled to play the second ODI at Sialkot on that day. The match started on time and as the Indian captain, Sunil Gavaskar was injured the captaincy responsibility was given to Mohinder Amarnath, his deputy for the first time. India batted first as Pakistan captain Zaheer Abbas decided to field after winning the toss. Anshuman Gaekwad opened with Ghulam Parker, Gavaskar’s replacement and added 35 runs before being dismissed by Mudassar Nazar. Nazar also got rid of Parker for 20 as India was on 59/2. Dilip Vengsarkar and Sandeep Patil built a good partnership and added 143 runs before Patil was dismissed for 59 off Tauseef Ahmed. Ravi Shastri joined Vengsarkar who was in sight of his first ODI hundred.
India posted 210/3 in the 40-over match as Vengsarkar was stranded on 94. The news from The home came during the innings break and immediately the tour was called off canceling this match as well as the third Test match and the third ODI of the series.
The Indian team management started arranging for their trip back home. Among all this chaos, England cricket team reached India on that day to play a full tour of five Tests and five ODIs. After getting locked in their hotel for a few days they flew to Sri Lanka for some practice as the entire nation was under state mourning. They returned once the things were normal but there was another blow waiting. On 27th November, on the eve of the first day of the first Test, Percy Norris, the British Deputy High Commissioner at Bombay was shot while going to work in the morning. This almost brought an end to the tour but finally, the team decided to stay back and played the series which was reduced to four Test matches. Vengsarkar got his only ODI century during the ODI series.
