An ill-informed decision.
Author :
subramanyam
Blog :Truth & Light
Date: 7/21/2012 3:59:41 PM
This post is late by a week or so, in an age where the average shelf life of a news item is at the max 2 days, me writing this stuff almost a week after BCCI’s decision to play with Pakistan again is indeed late, isn’t it ?
So India will be playing Pakistan again, this time for 3 ODI’s and 2 T-20’s . As announced by The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and confirmed by PCB Pakistan will be touring India December-January to play bilateral series.
India has snapped its cricketing ties with Pakistan after the ghastly 26/11 attack on Mumbai in 2008. As the attackers were from Pakistan and the masterminds of the plot come from there India decided to snap all its ties with its western neighbor. In the last 5 years the nations did not play any bilateral series and the sporting ties between the nations are on an all time low.
To me this is a grave mistake. First, why link cricket and terror?If anything cricket is one of the ways of mending the ways between India and Pakistan. While it’s understandable that India-Pakistan tour in the backdrop of 26/11 attack would have been dangerous. Given the fact that sentiments of people were flying high and there was animosity between people, the security of players would have been a big challenge. Instead of getting emotional and suspending all sports ties , BCCI and the Government of India could have cancelled the tour citing the security concerns of the players. But we brought emotions into this and suspended the sporting ties citing 26/11 attacks as a reason.
Second, now that we have mixed politics and sports. Why are we relenting now? Today, 26/11 probe is still on, the recent capture of Abu Jundal reaffirms that the Pakistani soil was used to perpetrate the ghastly attack on the financial capital of India. Pakistan is still in a mode of denial, they are telling many things but there are no concrete steps, they are junking the reports India is sending. A prime accused like Hafeez Sayeed is still roaming free there. Why should we relent and extend our hand of friendship when all we get is non-cooperation and mistrust from the other end ? What is the signal we are giving by relenting? If snapping ties was indeed for the martyrs and victims of 26/11 then what’s the message we are giving to by resurrecting the ties now? Won’t those families feel cheated ?
Isn’t it time we stop making ill-informed decisions of this sort?
