After the debauched events of the preceding Test tours of England in 2006 and 2010, the entire country will be praying for a controversy-free series for Pakistan against Alastair Cook’s side when the four-match rubber starts next month.

Lord’s will be under spotlight at the start of the series on July 14 because it was at this hallowed venue that the infamous spot-fixing incident caused mayhem in the cricketing world on August 29, 2010. The attention had overnight shifted from the world record partnership between Jonathon Trott and Stuart Broad, who engineered an England fight-back by adding 332 after the hosts had been reduced to 102-7 in their only innings.

Suddenly a sleepy Sunday afternoon was fully awake as the (now defunct) News of the World tabloid narrated the previous night’s tale of spot-fixing in which the Pakistan captain Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and a teenaged Mohammad Amir were implicated for delivering no-balls in return for huge sums of money from a UK-based Pakistani agent Mazhar Majeed.

It seems controversies are never too far away whenever Pakistan and England meet

England condemned Pakistan to the latter’s heaviest Test defeat (innings and 225 runs) to win the series 3-1 that same Sunday, but it did little to cheer up the host team as the focus was now firmly on the story of another corruption tarnishing the gentleman’s sport of cricket after undercover News of the World reporters secretly videotaped Mazhar accepting money and informing the reporters that Asif and Amir would deliberately bowl no balls at specific points in an over.

Mazhar was a known figure to a number of Pakistani players and along with his brother Azhar helped them get various contracts, ranging from club deals to endorsement and kits.

Mazhar — who was arrested by Scotland Yard the same evening the story appeared on suspicion of bribing Salman, Asif and Amir — was also spotted during the Sydney Test at the start of 2010. It was the same match which Pakistan lost to Australia in notorious circumstances after Kamran Akmal missed at least four straightforward opportunities to get rid of Michael Hussey, much to the chagrin of Danish Kaneria.

The sting operation reported that Mazhar predicted Amir would be bowling the third over in the fourth Test and that the first ball of the over would be a no-ball delivery. Amir did bowl the third over, and on his first delivery from the over, bowled a no-ball, a good half a metre over the line. Mazhar also predicted that the sixth delivery of the 10th over would be a no-ball, and that ball, delivered by Asif, was also a ‘huge’ no-ball delivery.

Punitive actions were subsequently taken against Mazhar and the three players in the aftermath of the controversy after prior warning from Yawar Saeed, the Pakistan team manager on the fateful tour, was not taken seriously by both Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif and other players at the start of the tour.

It seems controversies are never far away whenever Pakistan play in England. Some say the notorious British media make it a habit to start a war of attrition to shake up every touring team to the Old Blighty, while rekindling postcolonial mentality of the so-called elite echelon of cricketers the Englishmen claim they are, particularly when playing the likes of Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and the West Indies.

Somehow it is usually Pakistan who land themselves in unnecessary trouble. But sometime with a valid reason, too. Their objection to appointment of controversial umpire David Constant during the 1987 Test series was overruled by the English authorities. Haseeb Ahsan, the outspoken manager of that team, was specifically tasked to ‘teach’ the local media a harsh lesson. Even Imran Khan as captain was very impressed by Haseeb’s handling of the entire issue and started respecting the man more and more.

There is another story that Haseeb was seeking an opportunity to settle old scores with the Englishmen after his playing career was abruptly halted during Pakistan’s 1962 tour of England by allegations of the off-spinner being a chucker.

Ball-tampering allegations are not new to Pakistan cricket. On the 1992 and 1996 tours to England, the likes of legends Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis were creating havoc in the English ranks with the uncanny ability to make the ball swing in the reverse direction. The deadly duo shared 43 wickets in the 1992 series amidst accusations from former England players that they used unfair means to dismantle the host team 2-1 in the five-match series.

Remarkably, if umpires from Pakistan are found wanting they are swiftly dubbed as cheats by visiting teams, more so by England. But what transpired in the 1987-88 series in Pakistan was a ramification of the tour a few months ago. There are many of us who have not forgotten how England missed a great chance to level the series when their battle-hardened skipper Mike Gatting and colourful Pakistani umpire Shakoor Rana got embroiled in an ugly finger-pointing confrontation during the second Test at Faisalabad as they hurled obscenities at each other.

Shakoor accused Gatting of cheating by adjusting the field after informing the non-striking batsman, Salim Malik, just as spinner Eddie Hemmings was about to bowl. As Hemmings began his run-up, Gatting motioned to David Capel he had come far enough from deep. Technically, the move was legal as Gatting had told the batsman and his gesture was not moving a man and, as he was out of the striker’s vision, was not going to distract him.

But Shakoor, stationed at square leg, was unhappy and yelled out: “Stop, stop” as Hemmings delivered the ball. His colleague Khizer Hayat had the quick sense to call it a dead ball. A bemused Gatting inquired what happened and was told by the outspoken Shakoor he had cheated by waving his hand!

What followed was inevitable as the standoff between the England captain and the umpire led to the third day being completely lost. It took a hand-written apology from Gatting on the fourth morning which finally saw peace between the aggrieved parties.

England were already furious at the substandard umpiring of Shakeel Khan — an official who repeatedly indulged in obediently carrying out Javed Miandad’s instructions whenever Miandad led Pakistan in home Tests — during the first Test at Lahore where they lost.

Despite losing the series 1-0, their generous cricket board rewarded each member of the touring party a cool £1,000 for the troubles they faced on the trip to Pakistan!

By the time Pakistan went to England in 2006, the concept of neutral umpires had already become a permanent fixture in every Test match. The old tricks of accusing home-based umpires for being biased to their country of birth were long out of fashion.

Therefore, it came as a huge surprise when Inzamam-ul-Haq’s side was accused of tampering with the ball during the final Test at The Oval by hardnosed Australian umpire Darrell Hair, who was partnered by Billy Doctrove of the West Indies.

By a coincidence, it was a Sunday when Pakistan opted to scupper a golden chance of salvaging pride with a consolation victory when they chose to forfeit the match rather than take the field after tea on the fourth afternoon. England were still a long way from saving the match with four second-innings wickets down. Instead they were declared victorious of the series 3-0 with one game drawn and Inzamam being slapped with an ICC ban for bringing the sport into disrepute.

Whatever is in store for Misbah-ul-Haq and his team in the upcoming series with Pakistan aiming to end a 20-year itch to beat England in a series in England for the first time since 1996, the respected captain has urged his charges to think positively and forget what happened in the past while keeping themselves focused on the arduous task ahead.

“It indeed is a tough series, but the easy way to deal with this tour is to just focus on your game,” Misbah said before the team left for England. “We don’t have to look around and there is no need to peep into the past, otherwise you will never move ahead. Just believe in your training, your practice and enjoy your cricket. This is the only way to keep away from controversies.”

Wise words from a wise man, indeed.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, June 26th, 2016