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Cricket as Metaphor
December 18, 2008 3:48 PM
By NICK SCHIFRIN, ABC News, Islamabad
In 2004, when diplomats on both sides of the Radcliffe Line realized the Pakistan-India relationship needed a thaw, they did not turn to an international conference or a European mediator.
They turned to that Commonwealth pastime of ball, bat, wicket.
Americans don't really understand cricket. They don't get the rules. They make fun of the clothes and the tea breaks. And they certainly don't understand how important cricket is in this part of the world.(Left: Indian cricket fans before a 2005 India-Pakistan match. AP photo/Manish Swarup)
Consider this thought experiment, for American readers out there. Take baseball, the U.S. national pastime, and everything it represents to American culture -- read the prologue of “Underworld,” watch “Field of Dreams,” consider Lou Gehrig's story.
Take the pre-steroid-era worship of the baseball player, the families around their TVs watching New York's teams back when they included the Dodgers and the Giants, take the 4 million kids playing Little League today.
And then expand it out. Give every American kid -- rich and poor -- in every small park in every part of the United States a cheap baseball, bat, makeshift bases and glove -- because the equipment requirements for informal cricket are a fraction of those for informal baseball -- and eliminate most other forms of entertainment.
Replace Babe with Sachin, Cy with Muttiah. And imagine the United States as a former subject, beating its once colonial masters, in a game created by the master.
The Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw once put it thusly: "The English are not very spiritual people, so they invented cricket to give them some idea of eternity."
So when India's cricket team cancels a planned five-week tour of Pakistan -- as it did today -- do not dismiss it as pure sport. It is an international diplomatic snub, a message from one rival to another: I don't want anything to do with you right now.
No cricket, no relationship.
Things got pretty frank among the Indian sports community immediately after the Mumbai attacks. MS Gill, India's sports minister, gave this undiplomatic quotation to the Press Trust of India wire service:
"Is it possible for one team to arrive in Mumbai and indulge in mass murder, and have another team go and play cricket in the winter afternoon sun at Lahore, immediately after?"
No relationship, no cricket.
Both countries' foreign ministers say the peace process -- ignited in part by the 2004 cricket matches, the first in 14 years -- is on "pause." Diplomats admit that more than the peace process is on hold. The two countries are barely talking to each other, except through the media or in protest.
Pakistan says it's waiting for India to present it with evidence that Pakistanis plotted the Mumbai attacks. India says it's waiting for Pakistan to give details of its crackdown on the terrorist groups inside Pakistan blamed for the attacks.
Pakistan's Foreign Ministry called the Indian deputy high commissioner in Islamabad to complain about what Pakistan says are violations of its sovereignty by Indian fighter jets. India denied it.
Diplomats aren't talking to each other; they're calling journalists to find out what the other country is doing.
"There's not a lot of communication between India and Pakistan," a U.S. official told me this week. "We're trying to change that."
In many ways, the decision by India to cancel the Pakistan tour hurts Pakistan more than it hurts India, whose team is, these days, far superior.
"We can safely say that it will be a loss of [$25 million to $30 million], but I fear it could be more because [of] our television rights deal," Pakistan Cricket Board chief operation officer Salim Altaf told Agence-France Press. That's because last month, the cricket board signed a $140 TV deal that won't be paid if a series is canceled.
"This is the Indian government saying [to Pakistan], 'We're severely displeased and you must to do something if you want to continue normal relations,"' Indian analyst Prem Shankar Jha told The Associated Press. "It's showing displeasure in a manner that people really will notice."
That is because, perhaps more than any other one event, India-Pakistan cricket matches have the ability to persuade each country's various religious, geographic and ethnic identity groups to think in nationalistic terms. And to think about how the countries are linked in their British histories, how they share virtually the same language, the same cultures, the same pastimes.
And so, perhaps above all else, it will be the common people separated by a border who lose out the most here.
They will miss the rivalry, the camaraderie, the sport of India-Pakistan cricket.
"It's a big disappointment and a setback to Asian cricket," former Pakistani cricketer Sarfraz Nawaz told the AP. "The terrorism acts could happen anywhere in the world, but that does not mean that sports activities should come to a halt."
December 18, 2008 in Nick Schifrin | Permalink | User Comments (11)
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India should look within themselves before they start pointing fingers. Things will never get better unless they change there domestic policy.
Posted by: peace | Dec 20, 2008 8:41:36 AM
I am happy that Americans were not playing Baseball with the Taliban after the 9/11 and I am delighted that the Indians are not playing Cricket after the murders in Mumbai with an entity that is much worse and equally gutter-bound.
Posted by: M | Dec 20, 2008 12:34:45 PM
Cancelling the cricket series is not just political decision it's the wish of 1.1 Billion indians!.
2 weeks back one of the pakistani who was leading in a show (similar to American idol) by popular votes was thrown out due to very poor voting for him. He was top choice before the mumbai attacks. It's very clear indian people are fed up Pakistan's acts. World will be a better place without pakistan
Posted by: Indian | Dec 23, 2008 12:30:39 AM
Place would be better without racist people like you "Indian"
Posted by: peace | Dec 23, 2008 12:25:57 PM
THIS FOR RACIST AROUND THE WORLD SPECIFY THE INDIANS
Terrorism has no face. It has no religion. Why is it that today, when we think terrorist.. we think of a bearded man, wearing a cap, and clearly belonging to an Islamic community?
Why is it that today, when we associate terror, we think of the Taliban or the Al-qaida?
When L.K.Advani launched his rath yatra, and killed millions of Muslims, why was it not considered terrorism?
When Rajive Gandhi Ordered the massacre of Sikhs in 1984, Why was the act not considered an anti-national form of terrorism?
Why is it, that when The U.S.A Declared war over the middle east, a 'War On Terror', and killed millions of innocent men, women and children, was it not called terrorism?
Why, When Narendra Modi Orchestrated the anti Muslim riots in Gujrat, was it not called terrorism?
Why, when Raj Thackerey beat up thousands of non Marathi people, was the act not considered terrorism?
We will say no to terror. Not 'Islamic terror', not 'Hindutva terror' Not 'LTTE terror'
WE WILL SAY NO TO EVERY FORM OF TERROR.
Posted by: peace | Dec 23, 2008 1:11:35 PM
An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world wear sunglasses.
Posted by: Jerry Rosen | Dec 26, 2008 4:26:58 PM
This world would be a better place without India. India is a terrorist country that murders its minorities its will. This fecal nation has added nothing but population of over a billion morons, and we are fed up of their terror. No one wants to play cricket with trash.
Posted by: khan | Dec 26, 2008 4:53:22 PM
This world would be a better place without India. India is a terrorist country that murders its minorities at will. This fecal nation has contributed nothing to the world, but a population of over a billion morons. We are fed up of their terror. No one wants to play cricket with trash. Indians are pathologically slavish people, their disgustingly servile behavior towards whites, has destroyed the dignity and self respect of the entire South Asia.
Posted by: yakoub khan | Dec 26, 2008 4:57:14 PM
Mr. Khan and Peace (lol..nice name, quite a paradox),
You guys are disgusting.Everyone knows, including your President who confessed that your country and "cancer". Pakistan has been safe haven for internationally recognised terrorists like Daud Ibrahim, organizations like taliban, LeT etc. Terrorists from these organisation roam free in your country. They are behind the scene rulers of your country. Your country is in complete disarray and you are not at all ashamed of it.
People like you should not be talking about India. In India we have given equal rights and respect to all the communities. India does not have any state religion like yours. Our last President belonged to a minority (Muslim), cricket captain was a Muslim, Bollywood stars are muslim and ISRO head (related to defense) was muslim as well. My very close friends have been muslim, christans etc..
I never thought about religion when I was growing up. You guys are disgusting...
NOw you saying morons to us..lol...if you dont know, we are one of the best brains of the world...if you dont read news, read it and improve your knowledge...in science and technology, in field of arts and literature- any field you want to compare. Name any paki who has been famous in the world..I can name hundreds of indians in the same field (ofcourse cannot name any in field of terrorism- you guys win there..lol).
You are scum in the face of this earth. Cowards like you come to other countries to kill for no good reason.
Peace in this earth can never be unless you acknowledge your problem and solve it (like you president recently did, quote-- "we have cancer".
Posted by: AD | Dec 29, 2008 12:34:41 PM
g m rao
Posted by: KK | Dec 29, 2008 1:01:45 PM
mulla sab apni behan ko chodo
Posted by: KK | Dec 29, 2008 1:02:45 PM
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