Diary – 4 June 2015

For the first time since the terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team six years ago, a Test match side has visited Pakistan. The Zimbabwe tourists, playing at the same Lahore stadium where the attack was mounted, were greeted with wild enthusiasm. Less well reported has been the fact that a team of English cricketers (including myself and Alex Massie of this parish) has been touring the Hindu Kush. We played in Chitral, Drosh, Ayun, Kalash and Booni. In these mountain areas many of our opponents were using pads, gloves and a hard ball for the first time. Still, we were overwhelmed, rarely losing by fewer than 200 runs in games which never exceeded 30 overs.

Our first match was at Langlands School, named after the legendary headmaster Major Geoffrey Langlands, who retired two years ago aged 94. Langlands, who took part in the Dieppe raid of 1942, has moved to Aitchison College, Lahore. Carey Schofield, a former foreign correspondent and Spectator contributor, is doing a remarkable job as the major’s replacement. Her school greeted us with a moving and generous reception before whacking us at cricket. Miss Schofield tells me she is crying out for funds, and Spectator readers with spare cash could do much worse than give some to Langlands school. Better still, they could go and see it for themselves. While in Chitral they can stay in Prince Siraj Ul-Mulk’s Hindu Kush Heights, one of the world’s great hotels.

At Mastooj fort in Upper Chitral mobile phones did not work. There was no internet, no Twitter, no social media. Everything worked better. We had time to look around us, to read books, to listen to the rush of mountain streams, to study the landscape, enjoy conversations, and wonder at the magnificent adventure that is life.