No playing Pakistan

Ranganathan Sriram

The issue of India playing in Pakistan is a ticklish one and with the Indian government refusing permission for the team to reciprocate Pakistan's tour of India last year, the question of mixing sports with politics comes back into play.

The Pakistan Board has made the appropriate indignant noises and the ICC (official/unofficial mouthpieces of the ICC) has hinted at penalties and bans. Even some people on the Indian front are making statements of the incorrectness of the decision.

Let me make my opinion clear before delving into any other aspect of the situation. In my opinion, India should not be touring Pakistan presently. Yes, sports are a unifying entity and are one area where politics has no place but the issue here is not sports or cultural relations or anything of that sort. The issue here is of India and Pakistan and the scores of men dying on both sides everyday.

Who is the responsible party for the proxy war raging on for approximately 50 years now is something I would leave to the politicians to debate and argue. For my part, all I know is that last year there was Kargil, where several hundred of my people lost their lives in a war which till now has not got the official status of a war.

All I know is there are scores of families today without an earning member because of cross border firing and scores more getting into that category every day. All I know is that scores more in my country's own state of J&K are getting killed by "freedom fighters" sponsored by Pakistan. All I know is that one innocent young man on his honeymoon lost his life when an IA aircraft was hijacked by terrorists demanding the release of another terrorist who is today roaming free in the streets of Pakistan inciting more violence in my country.

To really talk of cricket being apart from politics does not really make too much sense in this regard. India is a country and the cricketers are citizens of India too. When we want to present a united front to Pakistan and the world, condemning Pakistan for its activities, to send a cricket team over there would not be in line with that thinking. We want to tell Pakistan, "We will have nothing to do with you till you start behaving responsibly" and for that statement to have effect, even cricket has to be compromised.

Sports rises to a level above politics for sure but it does not rise above the country's interests. Of course, not going to Pakistan to play cricket will have no effect on that country's politics but this way we can make a statement.

In this scenario one may argue that Pakistan did tour India and India should reciprocate. Let's take our memories back to the last time we toured Pakistan for a Test series. Our captain Krish Srikkanth got his shirt ripped off by some psycho who managed to evade the security cover and rush onto the playing field. Fruit of all varieties was pelted on us and I remember Prabhakar making a good meal of an orange. Compare that with the Pakistan team getting a standing ovation at Chennai after they won the first Test match last year.

There is a big difference between the cricketing public of the two countries and in addition to the "We stand as one" statement that India wishes to present to the world, there is also the question of personal dignity of the cricketers which is compromised when they face situations such as those outlined above.

Loudmouths in the Pakistan camp have been claiming fear on the part of India as an excuse for the tour cancellation. All I can do is to ask them to remember Akram's "it will be a good practice match" quote before the match against India. After his team got thrashed in that match, he was left looking pretty foolish. Nobody except the "yes men" of Pakistan cricket and the more credulous of its population are going to believe the claim of India being afraid of getting beaten. The rest of the world is simply going to laugh. Plainly put, one billion Indians + the rest of the World - Pakistan = a big, long laugh.

As for the ICC, I fail to see where it comes into the picture at all. The spineless, toothless body of nincompoops is making noises of fining India and even banning them against playing other Test-playing nations. Someone should stand up and tell the Lord MacLaurins and Malcolm Grays not to talk nonsense. ICC is a cricketing body and it can talk on cricket. It can have a say in what the BCCI does but it definitely has no say in what the government of India decides, and to even make statements such as putting pressure on the government of India to reconsider its position is pure cheek.

The ICC hasn't been able to take a firm stand on the chucking controversy or the match-fixing probe. Making statements such as this only acts to increase the public's contempt for this toothless tiger of World cricket.

Today, almost all of India stands together in agreeing with the decision of the government. In all the chat rooms and notice boards I have seen the topic being discussed, Indians cutting across age and location are expressing their backing for the move. Then there are those, such as former BCCI chief Raj Singh Dungarpur who publicly call the decision incorrect.

Sometime back he announced the selection of John Wright as the Indian coach, making it sound as a "though the others were better, we had to settle on Wright for such and such reason". Then he publicly stated his support for the "tainted five" of Indian cricket and commented on their right not to appear before the BCCI appointed fact-finder Madhavan.

With his current statement on the government's decision of not allowing the cricket team to tour Pakistan being wrong, he has indeed risen to the level of BCCI secretary Lele, except that he hasn't used the word "rubbish". Mr. Dungarpur is surely entitled to his opinion but I hope he realizes that apart from getting a couple of lines and his picture in the papers, all he is achieving is to tell the world that he thinks his government is wrong and the people making indignant noises are correct. So much for a united front.

This zest and this energy on the part of Mr. Dungarpur and others in the BCCI would be better utilized in drawing up vision plans for Indian cricket and in improving the domestic circuit, infrastructure and pitches in the country. Let the politicians play at politics and let Indian cricket administrators concentrate on administrating Indian cricket.

Let's not play cricket in Pakistan. Let's not play hockey in Pakistan. Let's not play them at third country venues. It shouldn't be that hard since except for Sharjah we rarely end up in the same place at the same time. Some time in the near future (hopefully!!!) when things become better than they are, we can make sure cricket relations are one of the first to become normal. But till then, let's remember those many nameless soldiers and civilians dying due to Pakistan's terrorist-supporting activities and say "Thanx but no thanx".

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