- The quest for an answer
John Roos defined diplomacy as; “fundamentally working with people, bringing them together to deal with difficult issues”.
With the aforementioned definition, diplomacy remains open to political tools that aide in bringing people and nations together, and make way for resolution of any outstanding bilateral issues.
After football, cricket is the second most-widely played game in the world, and owns a fan following of billions of people from all across the globe. Religion, ethnicity, language, boundaries; all become secondary to the love of cricket. The passionate lovers literally eat, sleep, and live the game. The game of cricket, hence, has emerged as a potential political tool that portrays the soft power of a country contributing to enhance or worsen the diplomatic relations between cricket playing countries. Cricket diplomacy, today, is therefore adopted by the game’s host countries as an active weapon in their diplomatic arsenal.
The Indo-Pak subcontinent remains host to perhaps the largest and most passionate fan following population of the game. The emotional attachment of the dwelling publics here to cricket is unmatched, and therefore, cricket has always been more than a game here. An India-Pakistan cricket contest is unmatched, and not just witnessed by the two nations battling it out for glory, but the cricketing world at large. For India and Pakistan, specifically, cricket has remained a major tool in the diplomatic kit of the two countries that holds the potential to ease the way for talks on serious outstanding bilateral issues. An Indo-Pak cricket series has been resorted to on various occasions in the past in order to break the ice between the two neighbouring countries at the diplomatic level.
The Indo-Pak subcontinent remains host to perhaps the largest and most passionate fan following population of the game. The emotional attachment of the dwelling publics here to cricket is unmatched, and therefore, cricket has always been more than a game here
Contrary to enhancement of relations, on the other hand, cricket unfortunately has also been used as a tool to undermine the relations between Pakistan and India, primarily by the hostile eastern neighbour. India, in the past years, has been using cricket as a diplomacy suspension tool to block all possible roads that would lead to a bilateral diplomatic channel for effective negotiation on issues, especially pertaining to terrorism. India has suspended cricket with Pakistan more than once in the past in wake of cross-border terrorist attacks allegedly orchestrated by Pakistan, something that the latter has categorically denied all along.
In the latest attempt, the Indian minister for external affairs, Sushma Swaraj, ruled out any possibility of a cricket series with Pakistan amid the ongoing tensions between the hostile neighbours. “Any bilateral cricket series between India and Pakistan is unlikely unless Pakistan stops cross-border terrorism and firing”, said Swaraj while addressing the Indian parliament’s consultative committee on external affairs which met on relationship with the neighbourhood. On being asked if a cricket series with Pakistan on a neutral venue was possible Swaraj responded that it seemed “unlikely”, and stated that “terrorism and cricket cannot go hand in hand”. The meeting was also attended by the Minister of State for External Affairs MJ Akbar, and the Indian Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar. The Indian external affairs minister’s reaction supposedly comes after the alleged mistreatment of mother and wife of imprisoned Indian navy officer, and spy, Kulbhushion Jadhav at Pakistan’s Foreign Office.
This, however, would not be the first attempt by India to avoid one-to-one talks with Pakistan. Back in 2017, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) filed a compensation claim of $70 million against Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for not honouring a bilateral cricket series agreement.
ICC Champions trophy 2017 staged the last battle between Pakistani and Indian cricket teams.
Effective diplomacy calls for uninterrupted talks between counter-parts, and all necessary tools and techniques to ensure the continuity of the same must be put to optimal use. For India and Pakistan both, cricket is a major constituent of soft power apparatus, and must be unleashed to its full potential to break the ice between the two countries at diplomatic levels. Negative persuasion of a larger than life tool, such as cricket, in the subcontinent is not a sustainable and wise option.
Both India and Pakistan under all circumstances must ensure continuity of dialogue on all outstanding issues, and instead of negatively putting cricket to use must allow the game to connect the zealous nations. India, in particular, must abstain from making cricket a scapegoat of its diplomatic failures every now and then.
Cricket diplomacy, subject to positive intent, holds the potential to lie down a potential foundation for promising diplomatic relations between India and Pakistan.