In this context, it is important to note that the cricketing history of the two nations has been riddled with controversy throughout.
A brief history follows:
In 1968-'69, England toured Pakistan for a crammed itinerary that packed three Tests into a mere 18 days. The games were ruined by frequent crowd invasions of the playing area, resulting in all games being drawn.
In 1972-'73, sundry rioting and crowd invasions badly affected the Karachi Test.
In 1977-78, serious crowd trouble again affected the Lahore Test - a match that was, barring the incidents, one of unalloyed boredom. In the same series, at Karachi, a record number of six LBW decisions were given, leading to allegations of biased umpiring. In the event, however, the game still did not produce a result - the eleventh successive drawn encounter between the two countries.
The shoe went on the other foot in 1982, when Pakistan toured England. The home side took advantage of some extremely controversial umpiring decisions by David Constant to eke out a narrow, three-wicket win at Leeds.
In 1987-1988 at Faisalabad, England skipper Mike Gatting and Pakistan umpire Shakoor Rana were involved in a showdown after a dead ball was called in the last over of the second day's play. Gatting protested the call, the two were seen in a midpitch confrontation, and for a while it looked as if the whole series would be threatened. At the last moment, however, officials of the two sides intervened to save the situation. The third day's play was, however, totally abandoned and a further 35 minutes were lost on the fourth day before sanity was restored.
In 1992, in England, Pakistan won in convincing style, beating England two Tests to one in the three Test series after having first won the one-day series. However, the British media and some past players raised a furore, when they claimed that the hugely successful Pakistan opening bowlers Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, both of whom took over 20 wickets in the Tests, had indulged in ball tampering.
It was left to an Australian - former skipper Ian Chappel, then commentating on television - to say the last word. ``The way they were bowling, Waqar and Wasim could have swung an orange. And the way they were batting, the England batsmen would have got out anyway.''