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DEAR REDIFF

India A tour fixture raises political waves

Prem Panicker

For once, the Indian government decided to talk tough.

Not, however, tough enough.

Thus, the government today declared as ''deplorable and regrettable'' the decision by Pakistan authorities to call off one day's play between the India A cricket team and the Karachi City Cricket Association team, in order to express ''solidarity'' with the people of Kashmir.

The BCCI, a spokesman said, has decided not to resume play in this particular fixture, to express India's own ire in the matter.

An external affairs ministry spokesman however said the BCCI has further decided that the rest of the tour would go on as scheduled. "It is important from our point of view to continue to try and promote cultural and sporting contacts between the two countries,'' the spokesman said.

''We believe that the decision by the concerned authorities in Pakistan to call off play, which was scheduled for today, for reasons completely extraneous to cricket is most regrettable. This is a blatant attempt at injecting politics into sports,'' the foreign ministry spokesman said.

The PCB called off play today stating, in an official communique, that it supported the Pakistan government's decision to observe rallies in support of the people of Kashmir.

Asked why India was not calling off the entire tour of the cricket team, and further, what would happen if, after the Indian government's reaction, Pakistan decided to call the tour off, the spokesman said, ''The onus will be on them because we believe that there is both logic and mutuality of interests in promoting cultural and sporting links and people to people contacts between the two countries.''

Asked whether the BCCI had consulted the government before arriving at the decision not to resume play in the opening tie, he said, ''Essentially the decision was taken by the bcci...We have supported them.''

The spokesman said the BCCI had decided that the rest of the tour would go on because ''it is important from our point of view to continue to try and promote cultural and sporting contacts.''

Asked if the process of normalisation of Indo-Pak relations would receive a setback due to Pakistan's action, he said ''It is premature to say anything but we certainly do not consider it good ...We have always said that the relations should not be held hostage to any particular issue.''

Well, frankly, I am all for normalisation of relations -- sporting, political, cultural, every which way -- between the two countries. In fact, I deplore, always did and always will, some of the jingoism (by both parties, I must add) that I find creeping, every now and again, into the cricket chat site. And think as I might, I can see no reason for people who belong to one geographical unit, one entity, to be at each other's throats simply because it suited the British to have that cartographer, Cyril Radcliffe drew a line and decided this side would be called one thing and the other side, another.

I mean, I know the Brits had this divide and rule thing going, it was Empire policy all along, which is how a tiny little bit of turf lorded it over a good part of the world far longer than it should really have taken any of its then dominions to give Pax Brittanica a swift kick where it would do most good. But hey, whoever said we need to allow ourselves to play along? Whoever said we shouldn't think for ourselves, shouldn't bury hatchets that should, in the first place, never have been aimed at each other?

So yes, I would like to see Indians tour Pakistan without major visa hassles, and vice versa. I would like to see India play Pakistan at cricket, at hockey, at kabbadi, whatever -- heck, if the two teams could play each other at cricket and hockey more often, they would brush up their respective skills and run circles around the rest of the world, is how I see it.

But having said that, I believe that goodwill is a two way street. Look at it this way -- what if say Pakistan A were touring India, play was scheduled against say Bombay's Ranji team at the Wankhede, and say the Shiv Sena or the BJP or, worse, the national government as a whole, decided that play should not take place because 23 Kashmiri Pundits were murdered in Wandhama the other day?

That would be deplorable too. As the decision by the Pakistan government is. Very, very deplorable.

Why?

Because "normalisation of relations" means trying to put all the bloodshed, the baggage, behind and trying to look to a more friendly future. To call off play on the first day of a goodwill tour on the pretext the Pak government used does not put the baggage behind -- it, in fact, drags it right upfront and flaunts it.

And that is not the way you normalise relations .

In fact, that fact has just been proved -- for what do we have, at the very start of the tour? Relations that are worse than before the tour started. The Pak government made a gesture, now the BCCI has reciprocated with one of its own, the Indian government has said its two bits -- so things are actually worse, not better.

So then, the rest of the tour is a total, complete farce -- for I, for one, will certainly not believe that anything that happens, after such a start, can help take the two countries even half a step forward.

The baggage of politics now hangs over the team, the tour. It is unfortunate that this has happened -- but it has.

And that is why I believe that the Indian government, and the BCCI, should cut its losses and bring the India A team back. Now!

Yes, I desire friendly relations. I would think the desire would be shared by any human being who values human life -- how many more people must die to wash out the sin of history, of the British Raj, anyway?

But I believe that one hand, extended in friendship, is pointless unless it is met, halfway, by the other party's hand.

The PCB may have been motivated in its desire to make the dramatic announcement by a wish to please its political masters. Fair enough, an individual's, or body's, motivations are its own business.

But I cannnot see one single, solitary reason why the PCB's buttering up of its regime has to be at the expense of an Indian team that went there to play cricket. The calling off of play was an insult, it was unfair to bring politics into the picture after all those grandiose statements of exactly the opposite intention.

And that being the case, I believe that India should call the tour off. And that neither party should even consider any kind of sporting tour, to either side of the border, until both parties are clear in their minds that irrespective of what else happens, sports will be isolated completely from politics.

Like oil and water, politics and sports do not mix. Neither government should even attempt the marriage.