Let’s Play Cricket

The Pakistan cricket team’s India tour of 2005 has already generated, like always, a great deal of controversy even before the first ball was bowled. Not surprisingly, this entire hullabaloo has nothing to do with the game. There is no denying the fact that anything involving India and Pakistan involuntarily produces some amount of commotion. But the present controversy over Pakistan’s choice of venues for the upcoming cricket series is pointless.

India toured Pakistan after a gap of 14 years in 2004. The historic tour was termed as the "dosti series" or the "friendship series". The air was heavy with expectations – something witnessed earlier when Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited Lahore via Wagah in 1999. This cricket tour of 2004 had assumed similar, if not a greater importance, as the 1999 sojourn of Mr.Vajpayee. Therefore, both the Board of Control for Cricket in India and the Pakistan Cricket Board were working overtime to ensure that nothing went wrong. Apart from its political ramifications, this tour would have also translated into millions of rupees in revenue for both the Boards, more so for cash-strapped Pakistan Cricket Board. Even the political establishments on both sides of the border were keen to see that the tour went ahead, for their own reasons.

By hosting the Indian cricket team, General Pervez Musharraf’s government wanted to prove to India and rest of the world that Pakistan was a safe country. The high profile Indian cricket team coming to Pakistan, playing cricket all around the country and returning safely would have been the best reco letter that anyone could have handed to the General and his government. It was to be a major image-building exercise. Beating the Indians would have been a bonus.

The then ruling Bharatiya Janata Party headed National Democratic Alliance under the leadership of Prime Minister Vajpayee, too had reasons to see this tour going off without a hitch. Mr.Vajpayee had been a strong advocate of peace between the two nations, despite some of his alliance partners like the Shiv Sena adopting a hawkish position when it came to any kind of interface with Pakistan. A successful cricket tour of Pakistan by the Indian team would have given a stamp of approval to Mr.Vajpayee’s pacifist policies in the run-up to the 14th General Elections, which were to take place immediately after the tour. The importance of this trip can be gauged from the fact that PM Vajpayee received Sourav Ganguly and his men at his 7 Race Course Road residence a few hours before the team boarded the special Indian Airlines flight to Lahore. Cricket diplomacy was thus used by the BJP to portray its desire of having friendly relations with Pakistan.

The ‘friendship series’ was not without its controversies. Speculation was rife that the tour might not take place because of security concerns. Thankfully that did not happen. However, prior to the tour, an Indian team consisting of Inspector General of Police Yashovardhan Azad, Amrit Mathur and Professor Ratnakar Shetty visited all venues and checked on the security aspects of the tour. Going by the report submitted by this team, the Government of India asked for a change in the tour itinerary. India requested that Karachi and Peshawar, which were to host test matches, now be allotted one-day games only. Karachi is to Pakistan what Mumbai is to India. However, the Pakistanis accepted the Indian request in the ‘spirit of the dosti tour’. The Pakistani side did not want anything to spoil the party.

The series was a cracker and lived up to the reputation of any India-Pakistan duel. A 3-2 verdict in the one-dayers and 2-1 in the tests – both in India’s favour; the genuine cricket fan couldn’t have asked for better cricket. The sight of Pakistanis waving the tricolour and congratulating the Indian supporters, who had crossed the border to witness history being created, must have definitely warmed the hearts of all those peaceniks who advocate more people to people contacts.

India won on the field, Pakistan off it, but cricket emerged as the real victor.

2005. Dosti Series - Part II. Pakistan prepares for a return tour to India. However, before the cricket team’s arrival, a panel which would assess the security situation at the various venues where the Pakistani team is scheduled to play makes its way to India. Déjà vu? The Pakistani assessment team returns home and submits its report. The Pakistan Cricket Board informs India that Pakistan would not play in Ahmedabad citing “safety reasons”. Déjà vu?

Pakistan’s refusal to play at Ahmedabad has raised the hackles of the BJP and its right wing allies. They have gone to the extent of saying that if Pakistan refuses to play in Ahmedabad, the tour itself should be called off!

The point whether Pakistan is playing politics with the game of cricket is debatable. Some critics of the Pakistan’s decision argue that India’s choice of not playing at Karachi cannot be compared with the Pakistani one of not taking the field at Ahmedabad. That is because Karachi cannot be equated with Ahmedabad. Ahmedabad, they say, doesn’t witness the kind of sectarian and political violence that Karachi witnesses regularly. In fact the critics charge that the Pakistani decision is an affront to India’s national pride and interference in India’s internal affairs!

I do not seek to get into the merits or demerits of these allegations and counter-allegations. Some groups in Pakistan might be trying to derive political mileage out of this incident, but then so is the BJP and its cronies. The BJP led NDA had no qualms about asking Pakistan to change fixtures during the 2004 tour. Its ally the Shiv Sena didn’t go about digging up the runway of Indira Gandhi International airport from where the Indian team was supposed to take its flight to Lahore. Why this drama now? And India isn’t so weak a nation to be “broken-up” by the Pakistanis refusing to play cricket in Ahmedabad.

Let’s be fair to the Pakistanis. In 2004 we were not happy about playing in Karachi and Peshawar and they gracefully granted our wish. Now it is time for reciprocation. Let us be good hosts and return the favours. That’s the only way we can see cricket emerging as the victor – once again.