by Raja Baradwaj Rajagopalan
Wondering what the cricket world was discussing before 26th November...? As teams appear reluctant to tour India, India seemed to have their prerogative just three days ago...Read on.
Some years ago we would never, ever have heard of this phrase “Canceling a tour”, when it comes to Indian cricket. The first we heard was probably when Mike Denness was the match referee in Port Elizabeth. This time around the threat was more about the status of that particular match, the next and the sanctions by the match referee more than the tour itself.
The second and the most visible was the recent “Maa Ki” tour of Australia. They said, he said it. And BCCI said we are packing off if you say he said and if they accept (and declare) he indeed said it. At the end of the day every body said nobody knew what was said and the matter was buried, RIP.
And the next, in a very short while is now when the Indian team is about to embark on a Pakistan tour. Suddenly we have become very concerned about the security situation in Pakistan. The BCCI has traditionally been the harbinger of gamesmanship, at least when teams in world cricket talk about security situation in a particular country they are about to tour.
Us cricket fans wouldn’t have forgotten the World Cup ’96. Even before the tournament started, when Australia and West Indies declared their intent of not playing in Srilanka a joint Indo-Pak team played the Lankans to prove that the security situation in Lanka was more than alright, peaceful to be precise. This was at one of the many peaks of militancy in Srilanka, the honchos of BCCI were quick to dismiss the tactics of the Aussie and WI team as irrational, unjustified and uncalled for.
Recently when many international teams refused to tour Pakistan for the Champions Trophy ’08, it was BCCI who said these teams fears are misplaced. When many of the ICC permanent members wanted to cancel the tournament, it was BCCI who shouted the loudest as to how sacrosanct the FTP of the ICC was and how safe a place Pakistan was.
They indeed did tour Pakistan for the Asia Cup during what was one of the toughest of political times for the country, Pakistan in the recent past. But this was before the infamous Marriot bombings of Islamabad in September. The Politico security scenario has changed drastically since then, I for one can’t recollect if there has been a (terrible) bomb blast or a terrorist attack in one of those important cricketing locales in Pakistan since then (there have been some in Pakistan, but in the border states I guess). Things have certainly improved in Pakistan, if not improved it has at least been status quo.
Given this, I fail to fathom why BCCI would want to cancel the Indian team’s tour to Pakistan. A Pakistani friend of mine, Mr. Q was bang on when he said “The terrorists can’t be a threat for the Indian cricket team, for they also love cricket. Especially Indo-Pak cricket, they are in fact mad about it”. He went on to say that they (the terrorists) would also be watching cricket on their portable TV sets (may be LCD’s now?!!) in their mountainous abodes in the Pak borders. I would add a line to what he had said, “As long as the television broadcasters ensure their signals are strong enough to reach the mountainous ravines of Pakistan, there wouldn’t be a single bomb blast in the whole country till the Indian tour ends”. For, every one in Pakistan would be busy watching the intense cricket played.
For once I think the Indian cricket establishment’s security fears are completely misplaced. The only rationale one can deduce from this whole “I might cancel the tour” episode is the recent developments in Pakistan cricket about their approach to ICL. May be Miandad and the rest of the PCB should immediately declare their undying love for BCCI & IPL. I am sure once this is done Pakistan would become one of the most safest of places on mother earth to tour and play cricket.
Do we remember the England cricket team’s tour to India in 1981-82 which Mrs Gandhi is supposed to have saved?
This team supposedly had Boycott and Cook, the two cricketers who defied the ban and played cricket in an apartheid South Africa (they were in fact among the 128 sportsmen placed on the UN anti-apartheid blacklist). After all those hue and cry by the world media and the Indian authorities, they still landed in India and played their cricket heartily.
So the moral of the story is, BCCI & the Indian authorities would allow something to happen as long as it suits them.
So PCB, make it convenient for them. Make things suit them, and the tour would happen as scheduled.
But these were the thoughts before terror indeed came terrifying on Mumbai’s port. How much has changed and how has the world changed? That analysis is still on.
