One would almost have thought that the Indians had invaded their neighbours. In the end, it was only a bunch of Pakistani cricketers not selected for the third edition of the IPL by the franchises that caused so much furore in the Pakistani parliament that there have been talks of boycotting anything and everything remotely Indian.
The potential embargo could involve cricket matches – which already do not exist – hockey games, which occur once in like a gazillion years, and even Bollywood films. Or at least that is what most voices that matter in Pakistan are suggesting. Phrases ranging from insult to the Pakistani cricket team to insult to the country as a whole have been doing the rounds, as some players have termed it as a ‘conspiracy against Pakistan as a whole which was being hatched for the last three or four months.’
Really now, while being hurt and disappointed at not been selected for one or other franchise for the IPL and not making that quick buck is only justified, the rest of the jamboree that seems to have followed is nothing short of over-reaction.
The critics from Pakistan have pointed fingers at everything plausible. The Indian Government, the IPL functioning committee and the franchises have all been blamed, and for someone observing it as a neutral, one cannot understand what the shenanigans are all about.
It is a private tournament, which like any other multi-national company in the world is not governed by what the government says. At best, it can consult the government and any decision that it has to take has to be its own prerogative, not the government’s. This was evident in the previous year’s IPL when the tournament had been shifted to South Africa despite the government asking them to postpone the whole tournament.
That leaves the IPL and the franchises, and one cannot see how a collective decision to exclude the Pakistanis would have benefited either one of them. In fact, the IPL committee would understand that the presence of Pakistani cricketers and the ensuing following of the game in that country would make for better revenues for the league. And one cannot see any real motive behind conspiring to deliberately do this after strategising for a definite period of times.
The hard and cold fact is that the performances of the teams depend on players who would be there through the entire duration of the tournament; players for whom the franchises did not have to worry too much about after having a lot on their plate already. So, if the visas of such players did not arrive on time because of the cold vibes existing between the two governments, then, it sure could have been an issue for the team unity; apart from adding to the unnecessary things to ponder about for the owners.
While it is easy to say that politics and sport should not be mixed, it is much more difficult to implement it. Gone are the days when cricketers or sportsmen could live in that cocoon of safety despite the existing threat to the world security; and in the prevailing scenario, it is only evident that the Pakistani cricketers touring India – or vice versa – would elicit an unnecessary security threat to those concerned.
Flip-flopping his retirement plans!
When Younis Khan had announced his retirement from the T20 format of the game, there were many an expert who had expressed their surprise over his announcement. Some had graciously used the usual set of clichés in ‘retire when they ask why, rather than why not’, while there were others, most notably the cricket followers from the other countries who had smirked at the seemingly inexplicable decision.
All of a sudden, Pakistan became embroiled in a match-fixing controversy, where the captain Younis Khan tendered his resignation from the longer formats of the game as well, but was coaxed into continuing. As it turned out, Younis has now done a total U-turn, and expressed his intentions of returning back to the most condensed format of the game as well. And the reason, in Younis’ own words is, ‘if my country-men and my players want me to come back I will!’ Probably Younis Khan has been inspired by Imran Khan, who was convinced into taking the reigns of the side again and led them to a World Cup triumph.
Some things never change in Pakistani cricket, I guess.
Moving on, after a hiatus of almost 20 days, the T20 cricket resumes action when the South Africans take on England in a two match T20I series. At the best of times, it is difficult enough to predict favourites for matches in this format, but these games could be particularly close.
It is the South African bowling attack has been found wanting this season in both, the ODIs and T20Is. Especially on pitches which have not had too much for the bowlers, the likes of Albie Morkel and even the usually difficult to get away, Dale Steyn have had a problem or two. Of course, Charl Langeveldt’s return to the squad – and in all probabilities to the playing eleven – could mean good news for the Proteas, given that his bowling in the death overs has won his side many games.
The one other plus that the English side could possess is that their middle-order seems like it is T20I ready. The troika of Kevin Pietersen, Luke Wright and Jonathon Trott add a lot more spice to the batting and this you-blink-you-miss format seems to have been made just for them. Trott has yet to play in a single T20I but if his record in the T20s for his county side, Warwickshire, is anything to by, then he could be quite a handful.
My personal call for this will be 1-1, and the one batsman I would be most interested in watching would be Pietersen – especially after the statements of his team-mate, Graeme Swann, about how he needs to earn back his place, would spur him on.
To end this piece, just a spot of T20 trivia. Chris Gayle is the only cricketer so far to score a century in the T20Is and he had done it in the very first game of the ICC World T20 in 2007 against South Africa. The highest score by an Indian batsman is 75 by Gautam Gambhir, in the final game of the same tournament against Pakistan!
Looks like the duo has been declared joint winners eh? No, that is just posing for the camera ops, but, to be frank, given the things both teams have gone through in the last couple of months, won’t it be a bad idea to do so!?
The last such major tournament which had seen the two teams being declared winners together was the Champions Trophy of 2002, when India and Sri Lanka played the same game twice over, and yet, couldn’t complete it! And no, they did not resume it from where it had been left off on the previous day, but actually went on to restart it; which clearly said that the administrators had lost their heads while framing the rules.
Had such a rule existed in the 1999 World Cup – in England – one can be rest assured that half the games would have been registered as no results through the duration of the tournament!
Coming back to the game in question, Pakistan has been quarantined in the cricketing world after being termed unsafe for travellers, while Sri Lanka had been involved in an unfortunate terrorist attack and have been no better in terms of being terrorism-ravaged.
The picture makes perfect cricket-romantic sense to me!
One would almost have thought that the Indians had invaded their neighbours. In the end, it was only a bunch of Pakistani cricketers not selected for the third edition of the IPL by the franchises that caused so much furore in the Pakistani parliament that there have been talks of boycotting anything and everything remotely Indian.