The best India and Pakistan can do is to continue playing
Anyone attempting to write on India-Pakistan cricket runs the risk of drawing from troves of cliched and rhetorical references. In a nutshell, it is like stating the obvious. And yet, like always, these never lose their import. However, the one outstanding factor that impinges on the outcome of matching involving the two Asian giants is the ability or lack thereof to cope with pressure. Mind you, it is no ordinary pressure certainly, not the kind other cricketing nations experience.
Not even the 129-year-old Ashes rivalry draws on the kind of frenzy, the lack of method to madness and utter jingoism premised in bitter history and delicate geography that marks India-Pakistan contests. It is understandable. England and Australia fight mad to get the better of each other but at the end of the day, treat the game for what it quintessentially, is just a game. To be sure, the rich tradition associated with these contests means the Poms and Aussies will even share beers at the end of the days play.
India-Pakistan rivalry is altogether a different kettle of fish. For one, theres almost some price to pay for the team that falls short almost as if it was a sin with the odd head going on the chopping block. The fans, otherwise so knowledgeable, can react in extreme ways depending on the outcome either worship the players like superheroes or burn their effigies and stone their houses.
Clearly, much more is at stake on either side of the divide than a cricket result. Not even the age old axiom it doesnt matter if you win or lose, its how you play the game seems to make sense. But I feel part of the reason for such irrational behaviour is down to lack of sporting contacts.
The intensity of win-at-all-cost mantra had diluted to acceptable levels when the two sides were meeting more often following the breakthrough bilateral series once former Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee finally nixed a self-defeating exercise of keeping thousands of troops along the Pakistan border in a prolonged eyeball-to-eyeball mode in late 2004. In fact, the following summer, the Indian team, administrators, Bollywood stars and fans alike were recipient of such hospitality that it proved a game-changer. I remember Indian icon Naseeruddin Shah refusing to play a character who was supposed to badmouth Pakistan in the blockbuster Mein Hoon Naa and even the script of the famous flick Veer-Zaara was modified to exclude negative references.
Sadly, like a cursed script, the Mumbai attacks took care of the bonhomie and since then the two nations and their cricket rivalry have once again assumed a gladiatorial avatar. While India has refused to tour or host Pakistan, incurring huge financial losses to the Pakistan Cricket Board, the teams have met in multilateral events, which however, have been an exception rather than the rule but to Pakistans credit it has never made any bones about playing India in India despite the obvious security threats.
Even as recently as last week, Pakistan helped foil a militant threat in the context of Wednesdays semifinal in cooperation with the Interpol.
Cricket diplomacy has factored in bilateral relations a number of times in the last three decades, only for the romance to fizzle out each time with India having issues with Pakistan over alleged cross-border terrorism. Pakistan, too, has complained of Indian hand in subversive activities on her soil, notably in Balochistan. Interestingly, while India has always resorted to snapping cricket ties with inexplicable exceptions made for other sports occasionally Pakistan has stuck with a policy of no politics in sports.
But since such diametrically opposite poles did not allow for the twain to meet, cricket lovers on both sides of the divide suffered and continue to endure what in the games popular parlance is called just not cricket.
One of the fundamental questions in the realm of India-Pakistan cricket pertains to the much fancied notion that it binds people. Is this merely a romantic illusion especially, given the cut-throat nature of the fans demand for winning at all costs or is there substance to it because it seems to open up avenues of contact at different levels?
Admittedly, its a tough one to answer given the paradox apparent in both arguments. My view based on recent history is that shutting the door on sporting contacts solves nothing.
In fact, the more the merrier since the intensity of negative as opposed to healthy rivalry dissipates over time. Touring and mixing with people also has the inherent potential of understanding the other better and therefore, taking the relationship to the next level. All things considered including perhaps, muddled logic at times the best that India and Pakistan can do to defeat terrorism and bad neighbourly quarrels is to continue playing cricket.
Now, if only Pakistan win at Mohali
The writer is a newspaper editor based in Islamabad. He can be reached at [email protected]
