As India Prepares to Host Pakistan, More at Stake Than Cricket

Ishara S.Kodikara/Agence France-Presse - Getty ImagesPakistani wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal watching the ball after Indian cricketer Virat Kohli played a shot during a match of the ICC Twenty20 Cricket World Cup tournament, in Colombo, Sri Lanka.     

Now that the Indian Home Ministry has approved Pakistan's tour of this country for a short series of One-Day Internationals and Twenty20 matches in December and January, the arch rivals are all set to revive their bilateral cricket relations in an event that is likely to transcend sports.

Cricket has long played a big part in India-Pakistan relations, and the Pakistan team's visit is being seen as one of the most important diplomatic events for both countries since the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks, in which militants from Pakistan killed over 160 people. Pakistan last played India in 2007, for five One-Day Internationals and three tests. (The two sides have met in multinational tournaments, however.)

The Indian government's decision last week to allow Pakistan to play in India came after lengthy discussions between officials of the Board of Control for Cricket in India and those of the Pakistan Cricket Board, between the two governments, and finally between the Indian Home Ministry and the Indian cricket board. The Indian cricket board's vice president, Rajiv Shukla, who is also the chairman of Indian Premier League, said that the government has guaranteed the Pakistan team's security as it tours India.

Some Indians have been eagerly awaiting the return of India-Pakistan national matches. “I wholeheartedly welcome India's decision,” Gundappa Viswanath, the renowned former cricketer, said in an interview. “Being a sportsperson, I strongly feel that sport should be left alone and not mixed with politics or diplomacy.

“The rivalry, howsoever intense, should be buried on the field at the end of the day,” he said. “I'm sure fans on either side of the border must be excited about the resumption of bilateral cricket ties between India and Pakistan.”

But the former India cricketer Kirti Azad, now a member of Parliament from the Bharatiya Janata Party, expressed surprise over Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's silence on the matter, recalling Mr. Singh's vow that India would not resume diplomatic relations with Pakistan until Islamabad punished those involved in the Mumbai attacks.

“The B.J.P. would raise the issue prominently in the winter session of Parliament,” Mr. Azad said in a news conference. “I agree sports should be kept out of politics, but it cannot be done at the cost of country's security and prestige.”

For the same reason, the former India cricket captain Sunil Gavaskar in July had criticized the Indian cricket board's attempts to revive ties with Pakistan. Mr. Gavaskar found many supporters, including the Shiv Sena Party chief, Bal Thackeray, a longtime critic of Pakistan.
“Playing cricket with them is treason,” Mr. Thackeray wrote in an editorial in the party newspaper Saamana at the time.
He also suggested the Indian cricket board be “publicly whipped” before the Taj Hotel and Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, two of the sites attacked by militants in 2008.

On Thursday, Mr. Thackeray said in another Saamana editorial that the Pakistan team's visit to India was a matter of “national shame.” He accused the Indian cricket board of “betraying the country for sake of mo ney” and added that Indian cricketers and the home minister, Sushil Kumar Shinde, were part of the betrayal.

But a majority of former Pakistani cricketing greats, including Abdul Qadir, Asif Iqbal, Javed Miandad, Sarfraz Nawaz and Zaheer Abbas, have welcomed the resumption of national matches, saying that it marked a big step forward in improving relations between the two countries.

Aamer Sohail, former Pakistan opening batsman, even suggested that India should also play in Pakistan, a move that would encourage other countries' teams to visit Pakistan. International cricket teams have avoided Pakistan after gunmen attacked a bus carrying the Sri Lankan team on its way to play in Lahore in March 2009. Since then, Pakistan has had to hold its “home” series at neutral venues in the United Arab Emirates, incurring heavy financial losses in the process.

As always happens whenever India and Pakistan meet on a cricket field in either of the two countries, ma ny high-level officials from both sides of the border are expected to attend these matches. The last time India and Pakistan played against each other was in the ICC World Twenty20 Championship in Sri Lanka in September, with India winning the match.
They had earlier clashed in the semifinal of the 2011 World Cup at Mohali in India, which was watched by Mr. Singh and his Pakistani counterpart at the time, Yousaf Raza Gilani. Pakistan lost both these matches.