NEW DELHI — Ahead of Team India's historic 2004 cricket tour of Pakistan—their first full series across the border in over a decade—then-Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf made a direct push to host a Test match in Karachi. However, India’s then Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani ultimately turned down the request based on intelligence warnings regarding high threat perceptions.

These diplomatic and security revelations have surfaced in a newly published memoir, "Policing the Republic: An Inside View of How India Fights Corruption and Crime, and Protects Rights", authored by former Indian intelligence and security officer Yashovardhan Azad.

The Threat Assessment and the RAX Call

Azad, who led India's three-member advance security assessment team to inspect Pakistani cricket venues in February 2004, recalled in his book that while their report cleared Multan, Rawalpindi, and Lahore for Test matches, it placed a firm veto on conducting five-day Tests in Karachi or Peshawar. The reasoning was straightforward: prolonged exposure in high-vulnerability zones posed a grave risk to Indian cricketers.

Shortly after submitting the assessment, Azad received a call from L.K. Advani via a secured Restricted Area Exchange (RAX) line.

"Yashovardhan ji, Karachi main kya hum Test match nahi kara sakte hain?" (Can we not hold a Test match in Karachi?), Advani asked, urging him to reconsider the venue and re-examine the decision alongside the Director of the Intelligence Bureau (IB).

Diplomatic Pressure from Musharraf

Sensing the political gravity of the call, Azad reached out to his school friend Arun Singh, then Joint Secretary handling Pakistan desk at India's Ministry of External Affairs. Singh disclosed that the push for Karachi did not originate internally within the Indian government, but was a personal request directly conveyed by General Musharraf to India's External Affairs Minister.

"Advani could easily have overruled us," Azad reflects in his chapter titled Cricket Diplomacy, Security and Politics. "Instead, he respected the security advice and made no changes to the itinerary approved by our team."

Terror Threats and Al-Qaeda Shadow

The tour eventually went ahead from March to April 2004, beginning with a shorter One-Day International (ODI) in Karachi rather than a extended Test match. But even the limited exposure came with significant tension.

Azad, who personally directed the Indian squad's security detail on the ground, highlighted that terror alerts were constant. While the team was practicing in Karachi, major terror strikes like the March 11 Madrid train bombings unfolded globally. Simultaneously, intelligence inputs—including alerts originating from Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) sources—indicated active terror cells targeting the Indian team in urban Pakistan.

To avoid widespread panic among players and coaching staff, security officials discreetly briefed key personnel, including team manager R.S. Shetty and head coach John Wright, maintaining maximum vigilance while keeping matches on schedule.

Thanks to strict adherence to security protocols, India completed the landmark tour safely, winning both the ODI and Test series—a success that Azad attributes to prioritizing official intelligence over political diplomacy.