Should India play cricket with Pakistan? More crucially, after several former Indian cricketers boycotted the match against Pakistan in the ongoing World Championship of Legends tournament, should we participate in the forthcoming Asia Cup where India could end up playing three matches against Pakistan?
It should be a political debate, because that’s how the issue has been treated for decades. But in reality, it’s a financial issue. The organisers of the tournament stand to make millions and cannot afford to have India pull out, as that would dent their profits. The same goes for the TV channels, which have paid crores to broadcast the tournament. They don’t want to see their investment collapse if India withdraws.
Money talks louder than politics. So all kinds of silly excuses are being offered to justify overturning the precedent set just a week ago, when former players such as Shikhar Dhawan, Harbhajan Singh, and brothers Irfan and Yusuf Pathan refused to play the match against Pakistan. Apparently, if India doesn’t participate in Asia Cup, it would amount to giving Pakistan a walk-over, which would apparently be ‘terrible’. (Oh really?)
Then there’s the argument that India’s desire to host the 2036 Olympics prevents us from boycotting tournaments for political reasons. Never mind that: a) The Asia Cup has nothing to do with the Olympics and is not organised by the Olympic Committee; b) That has never stopped us from boycotting sport with Pakistan before; c) There is a long and honourable tradition of countries refusing to play sport with others for so-called ‘political reasons.’
England wasn’t ostracised when it refused to play South Africa during apartheid. The US wasn’t drummed out of the comity of nations when it boycotted the Moscow Olympics over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
These are pathetic, bogus excuses offered by money-hungry men and their toadies.
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India set the precedent for boycott in sports
To see through these lies, we need only remind ourselves of a few basic facts.
There is a precedent for sports boycotts. For decades, India — and then the rest of the civilised world — refused to play with South Africa because it disapproved of apartheid. Even then, there were people (mainly White men) who opposed this position, pushing the same bogus argument still advanced by greedy interests: that sport should be free of politics.
In other words, it’s perfectly okay to pretend to be gentlemen together on the playing field with countries that legitimise bigotry and racism or murder people in pursuit of political ends.
In politics, military and trade, we should shun and isolate these countries, but when it comes to cricket, they are just jolly good chaps who we must engage with because “sports should be free of politics.” Right?
That’s like the Allies saying during World War 2: ‘We will defeat the Nazis and save humanity—but hey, why not play a game or two with these genocidal maniacs? It’s only sport after all.’
If you accept the principle of sporting sanctions — and India was among the first countries to advocate boycotts — then you only need to ask: is there a difference between apartheid-era South Africa and today’s Pakistan?
I don’t even need to answer that. Home Minister Amit Shah and much of the Modi government have been answering in Parliament for the past several days.
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Like apartheid, stand against Pakistani terror
Pakistan is a terror state; a sponsor of terrorism against India. The Pahalgam massacre was clearly organised by Pakistanis. To even ask whether the terrorists came from Pakistan is now seen as treason. That’s why we attacked terror camps in Pakistan. That’s why we launched Operation Sindoor. That’s why our armed forces risked their lives. We must cripple Pakistan so it can never take another Indian life again.
To this, the supporters of India’s participation in the Asia Cup ask: ‘But while we are crippling Pakistan, can’t we at least make crores by playing cricket with them?
Does that even deserve a response?
For decades, India has urged the world to declare Pakistan a terrorist state. When Donald Trump hyphenates India and Pakistan, we get agitated and ask: ‘How can you speak of us in the same breath as these terrorists? You should be chastising and isolating Pakistan, not equating us.’
But now we say: Don’t isolate them while we are playing cricket with them, please! There are big bucks in it for us!’
In moral terms, apartheid was an abomination. We could have treated it as South Africa’s internal matter. But we didn’t — we stood up for human rights.
Pakistan-sponsored terrorism is just as bad, morally. But for us, it’s even worse. With apartheid, we were taking a principled global stand. Here, our own people are being murdered. This isn’t abstract morality. This is a question of Indian lives.
If anything, we should take an even stronger stand than we did in global cases.
Stop with the bonhomie drivel
Finally, let’s dispose of the one argument that is always trotted out after the ‘keep politics out of sport’ drivel collapses: ‘We should play sport with Pakistan because people-to-people contact brings peace and understanding.’
But does it?
One of the first things Pakistan did after we resumed cricket ties was to send militants into Kashmir to foment insurrection. Is there any evidence that cricket has improved relations between the two countries?
Don’t swallow the two big lies in these discussions.
First, India-Pakistan matches are not occasions of bonhomie and goodwill, as we are constantly told. They are spectacles of jingoism and hostility. When India plays Pakistan, it’s rare to hear an Indian say, ‘These Pakistanis are jolly good chaps.’ What you do hear is: ‘Crush the b_____s.’
Second, don’t buy the nonsense that the problem lies only with the Pakistani government, while ordinary Pakistanis love India because of cricket.
The people who say this are either professional liars or have never met a Pakistani. During Operation Sindoor, Pakistanis rallied around their government, wished death on Indian forces, and celebrated when their media told them Pakistan had defeated India. There was no people-to-people love.
We may blather on about ‘Aman Ki Asha’, but the only ‘Aman’ Pakistanis have ever admired is Zeenat Aman.
Let’s not kid ourselves about why cricket administrators want India to play Pakistan in the Asia Cup. It has nothing to do with India’s interests.
All they care about is the interest that will accumulate — in their bank accounts.
Vir Sanghvi is a print and television journalist, and talk show host. He tweets @virsanghvi. Views are personal.
(Edited by Prashant)