Cricket, we love you
Cricket
Cricket, we love you
By Salman Khan
As Pakistan and India are set to clash at Sri Lanka’s Pallekele Stadium in Asia Cup, the writer shares what a match between the two teams means to fans around the world. It was originally published many years ago.
Being one of the millions of people across the subcontinent who have grown up cherishing the love for cricket, I can bear testimony to the fact that a Pakistan-India match is anyone’s dream of paradise.
“Love at first sight” is how one generation after another has defined the relationship. Such is the passion that rules many a heart on both sides of the border.
The match between the two traditional rivals, much more in political terms than on a cricket field, has always been more than a game. Successive governments have capitalised on the sport to achieve political interests.
“It’s a battle cry that’s more about jingoism than sportsmanship, and one that, disturbingly enough, is growing more shrill with each passing year,” was the cry of erstwhile commentator Omar Kureishi.
“It doesn’t take a sociologist to point out that an India-Pakistan match is a microcosm of the uneasy political situation that prevails between the two countries.”
It is this backdrop that has set the tone of the upcoming epic encounter the two teams are scheduled to play at Mohali (India) on March 30. What should be a purely happy occasion of two cricket teams taking on each other, much to the elation of spectators both in the stadium and those miles away from the playing field, is being embraced as a tool for making political statements.
The press on both sides of the political divide has gone the extra mile to create hype and play up the sentiments. Even the so-called neutral commentators and wordsmiths have found the temptation of spinning a yarn too hard to resist.
An excerpt of the recent news-item (contributed by AFP) makes no secret of such feelings.
Headlined India Vs Pakistan, the ultimate love-hate clash, it says: “The clash between India and Pakistan in the World Cup semi-finals will showcase one of the world’s most intense sporting rivalries fuelled by nationalism, bloodshed and a shared history.
"On the cricket field, a knock-out World Cup match on Indian soil is the biggest fixture between the two rivals for decades, and the excitement across the region is already sky-high ahead of Wednesday’s clash in Mohali.”
There is a glut of words that finds bidders in the information market, leaving little room for rational discourse to flourish. The voices of sanity are drowning in the oceans of despondency and the rule of white noise is gaining strength. One wonders why the word merchants have devalued their product under the cover of exterior gloss.
Little do the they realise that politicisation of a game as lovely as cricket, once a gentleman’s pastime, is a grave injustice to its followers. This together with massive commercialisation and induction of money has already sounded the death knell for the game which once was a pure joy.
“Keep the ruddy politicians out, and cricket will keep the people of India and Pakistan together,” so once exhorted Omar Kureishi.
Any match should therefore be a befitting occasion to celebrate a clash between two teams with equal prospects of winning. Both have their relative strengths and weaknesses and are vulnerable to crowd pressure, and bank on form on a given day plus the luck factor.
Riding the high horse of expectation can cost any of the two sides dearly.
After all it’s only a match and so it should be played, and not a battle. Every contest sees only one winner; win or lose is part of the game and should not be taken as a matter of life and death.
Nothing smells as sweet as success but sometimes there can be much more dignity and grace in losing because “it’s not important how often you get knocked down in life, what matters is whether you get up or not”.
May the crowds this time round heed the call, may the public of the two neighbouring nations yearn for common peace rather than belligerence and may the cricket emerge victorious.
India or Pakistan, the game should be played in the spirit it deserves and let there be the only chant: “Cricket, we love you”.
