Thread by @OaktreeSport

1/ There's an incredible story behind this picture of Gautam Bhimani and Wasim Akram on Holi.

#HappyHoli @gbhimani @wasimakramlive

2/ It was 1987 and Gautam had just completed his ICSE exams and as a treat, his father Kishore Bhimani decided they would fly to Bangalore to watch the India - Pakistan Test match. The senior Bimani was covering the game for his newspaper, The Statesman.

3/ As they came in late, they were given a room in the Pakistan wing of the hotel. There was so much security that they had to wear 'Pakistan Cricket Team' dog tags because they were in that wing.

4/ Now back in 1987, Test matches would have rest days. So it was three days - rest day - fourth and fifth day. But for this particular Test match, the rest day came after the fourth day, because it was Holi. And as you can imagine, the Pakistan team had never played Holi before.

5/ So on Holi day, Gautam and his father were awoken early in the morning by a loud knocking on their door. His father opened the door and found that it was Abdul Qadir, who lived in the adjacent room.

6/ "Dekho aapka team waalon ne kya kar diya. Mera shakal bigad gaya hai", he said. They had put some gulaal on his cheeks and he thought he was doomed for life. One of the Indian players had put some gulaal and after that the floodgates opened.

7/ Gulaal led to permanent color which led to going to the swimming pool, where everyone, including Gautam and his father, jumped in. Imran Khan tried hard to resist and it eventually took four players to get him out of his bathroom and into the pool.

8/ The India and Pakistan players ended up having a Holi party in the pool. In the middle of a Test match. The Taj Westend pool was destroyed and the bill was sent to the BCCI.

9/ If you go see the footage from the fifth day of this match, you'll see that the hands of the two Pakistani spinners, Iqbal Qasim and Tausif Ahmed, were red.

10/ You might not be able to play with colors today, but you can certainly hit play on this #22Yarns episode with @gbhimani and listen to more such incredible anecdotes 👇

open.spotify.com/episode/6ZbMKk…

Correction: The Bangalore Test got over on the fourth morning. The rest day was after Day 3.