Why Pakistan, why? India, BCCI and ICC tried but you can now kiss your revenue, Asia Cup, T20 World Cup hopes goodbye
After such a heinous act, it may never be acceptable for India's cricketers to occupy the same cricket field as their counterparts from Pakistan?
Sports and politics, it has been maintained forever – with or without complete justification – must not be allowed to overlap, that one has to be kept separate from the other. In theory, it is a sound concept, but practical considerations have often come in the way, ensuring, especially in the case of India, Pakistan and cricket, that it is impossible to separate one from the other.
Such is the lot of the sport, given its popularity, pull and power to unite (mainly), that cricket has often been used as a means to assuage tensions, leading to the coinage of the phrase ‘cricket diplomacy’. The first tangible evidence of cricket’s power to heal dates back to February 1987 when Gen Zia-ul-Haq, the then Pakistani President, travelled to Jaipur to witness a Test between the two nations in the immediacy of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, a visit that helped cool tensions following his meeting with Rajiv Gandhi, the Indian Prime Minister.
Before India toured Pakistan in 2004 for a full series for the first time since 1989 – and Sachin Tendulkar’s debut – Sourav Ganguly’s men were invited to a meeting with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who stressed the importance of winning not just matches but also hearts. Making the seasoned statesman proud, the Indians charmed the locals while lording over their opponents on the field, registering their maiden One-Day International and Test series wins on Pakistani soil. The following year, Gen Pervez Musharraf watched the last ODI between the sides in New Delhi while in 2011, at the invitation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani flew down to Mohali for the World Cup semifinal faceoff, a development that went some distance towards smoothing ruffled feathers following the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
Since a white-ball tour by Pakistan straddling 2012 and 2013, however, the two nations haven’t played each other bilaterally when it comes to cricket. Their showdowns have been restricted to continental or global competitions (Asia Cups and World Cups in both limited-overs formats) even as bilateral contests have continued in other disciplines, including in tennis’ Davis Cup when India blanked their rivals 4-0 in a playoff tie in Islamabad in February last year.
Now, though, it is debatable if India and Pakistan will/should play each other even in continental or global cricketing competitions. Actually, not even debatable. The developments of the last three weeks have made it practically impossible for sports to be insulated from anything else, for normal service to continue unchecked in sporting arenas given the all-too-visible spectre of terror from across the border that has escalated beyond human proportions following the horrific, concentrated and reprehensible attack on civilians in Pahalgam last month.
No sport is bigger than pride and honour
Cricket’s status as a vehicle of diplomacy must be shelved, immediately and without a second thought. If that means huge commercial setbacks to various stakeholders, primary among them broadcasters and principal sponsors, so be it. After all, financial considerations pale in comparison with pride and honour, both of which have been brutally poked in the last few weeks. Cricket can wait, just like all other sports. That’s a crucial message driven home subtly by the Board of Control for Cricket in India, which has temporarily (for now) suspended the ongoing Indian Premier League. Over in Pakistan, the authorities have deemed it fit to relocate the Pakistan Super League to the UAE; the BCCI didn’t even contemplate anything of this nature because this is not the time to focus on small matters like a franchise-based cricket league, never mind the stakes involved.
It is impossible to see India taking on Pakistan in a cricket match any time in the near future. To say that the two teams have played their last head-to-head of all time will be stretching things too far, but for the foreseeable future, India won’t be queuing up to fight it out with the Pakistanis in a hurry. The Asia Cup T20 tournament, originally scheduled tentatively for September, will be the first big-ticket cricketing event to be affected by the altered dynamics. India are the nominal hosts, but it was always on the cards, after Pakistan extracted a guarantee that it won’t travel to India just like India refused to tour Pakistan for the Champions Trophy, that the tournament would be held either in the UAE or Sri Lanka. But how fair will it be to expect India’s cricketers, as outraged as the rest of the country, to square off against Pakistan, given the climate of terror unleashed from the other side of the Wagah?
Then, there is the matter of the T20 World Cup, to be jointly hosted by India and Sri Lanka in February-March next year, where India will defend the title won last June in Bridgetown. It’s all fine to say that that is nine months away and that things could be vastly different by then, but will they really be that vastly different that so soon after such a heinous act, it will be acceptable for India’s cricketers to occupy the same cricket field as their counterparts from Pakistan?
