Fans petition for ban on Sahara Cup

Editor's Note: Harish Chandramouli, NRI and ardent cricket fan, sent us a copy of a petition that is being sent to Federal Sports Minister S S Dhindsa, to BCCI president Dr A C Muthiah, and other decision-makers. The petition is signed by dozens of like-minded fans.

We present, here, the petition in full. Along with Harish Chandramouli's email address, so that those desirous of adding their voice to his may mail him directly.

We are mainly overseas cricket fans, and above all, overseas Indians who care deeply for our country, its sovereignity, and its people, writing to you to express the outrage and disappointment we feel at the recent turn of events on the cricketing front.

In our hearts of hearts, we had been hoping it wouldn't come to this, but unfortunately, unless the Government miraculously decides otherwise in the interim, it does appear as if the Sahara "Friendship" Series next month against Pakistan is likely to take place after all.

And to that end, we write to you, not only to object to this upcoming tournament, but to also suggest why we feel future sporting encounters with our neighbours of any sort need to be put off indefinitely once and for all.

To begin with, the most obvious of arguments. Friends play sports, and engage in camaraderie with one another, not enemies. It has been established time and again that the only reason Pakistan exists, and the primary thing that really fuels it as a nation, is a deep-rooted and habitual desire to cause harm to, and to eventually disintegrate, India. Kargil last year gave us a fitting reminder of that - if not in its end result, at least in the execution it displayed by our most estimable neighbours.

And following Kargil, the Indian Government did the right thing, the only respectable thing it could have (considering the men and women who had risked their lives for our nation) - it called off the Sahara series last year. Yes, it is true that we did play a World Cup game against our enemy right when the conflict was at its zenith, but that was an encounter of paramount importance and one that could not have possibly been withdrawn from without a great deal of discomfiture. Yes it is also true, that contrary to what many desired, we went ahead and played the Pakistanis once again later in the year (this time, in the triangular in Australia), but even on that occasion there was a mitigating factor: it would have been a fairly tricky matter - financially, and otherwise - for our board to have withdrawn its side from a multiple-team event that it had already committed itself to.

But this year's one-on-one rendezvous in Toronto, is an altogetherly different matter. To draw an analogy: if playing Pakistan in Australia last year was akin to meeting someone who had caused your family a great deal of distress at a common get- together that you had been both invited to, then seeking them out and playing them now, is virtually identical to inviting that very individual to your own home for a head-to-head meet. It is not just an action that is naive, callous and foolhardly, but one that is possessive of immense affront and disrespect to the injured parties concerned.

And not just mere disrespect, but in this case, virtually an entire disregard for those who gave up their lives for our nation, so that the rest of us could live in peace. Is this what we have come to, as a nation? Are we so callous to the lives of even our own countrymen, that we continue to keep talking "friendship" and "peace", and even worse, playing sport with those who continually seek to violate us.

And the rebuttal, Sire, that sport and politics are two totally seperate entities, and ought to be treated as such, simply does not hold here. For if that were true, and the people, and the cricket players who represent Pakistan were indeed disjoint sets from the militants in the Kargil peaks, then those very cricket players would have never (following in the footsteps of the Indians, who did the same for our jawans) have held a benefit match to raise funds for those bloodthirsty savages, last year. Equally, the people of Pakistan themselves would have distanced themselves, and openly made public their distance, from the activities of the miscreants in Kashmir: not given their (explicit) moral, financial and diplomatic support to the very same.

Given that both these incidents did take place, is it thus not a trifle naive (not to mention, arrogant?) for us to keep giving them a clean-chit in the manner we do?

How would the mothers who have lost their sons in war feel, if they were to see our players associating with, and sitting hand in hand in the pavilion with those very Pakistani players who came out and openly showed their support for the militants in Kargil. Is this the selling price of patriotism these days? If it is, then India deserves not one patriot, let alone 700 men and women who willingly died for a cause they believed in, last year, and would do so once more if given the opportunity.

Of course, when one makes all these arguments against India playing Pakistan at cricket, one also concomitantly acknowledges that there are quite a few reasons as to why an engagement between the two sides would be beneficial for our board as well as theirs. Aside from the financial revenue such a meeting would generate, there is of course the small matter of "solidarity" it would show between two Asian nations in a rapidly polarizing cricketing world - and one hardly wishes to gainsay the significance of either.

But, equally one also argues that if solidarity is to be shown between two entities, it should be shown as a supplement to the mutual respect we share for one another. Not as something that exists in its own right and doesn't fit into the bigger picture at all. Given the way Pakistan as a country, and as a people, continue to behave towards India, the only reasonable conclusion to be drawn, is that if any "respect" does exist between the two nations at this point in time, it is only because we Indians have made it possible. Pakistan deserves no credit for this.

There is also another reason why India ought to take time off from playing Pakistan at this point in time, the importance of which simply cannot be understated. At a time when the probe into the match-fixing scenario is rapidly gathering speed, the Indian cricketers look an entirely distracted and disgruntled lot. As the recent Asia Cup in Bangladesh showed, our players are in no frame of mind for encounters on any cricket field - let alone on one that will be inhabited by our archest rivals. Thus, sending India to play a highly talented, versatile, and brimming with confidence Pakistani outfit, would only be akin to sending a bunch of lambs to the slaughter. An exercise in utter futility, and the result of which that that would undoubtedly please the Pakistani players and fans alike to no end, but not much more. Why give them the pleasure?

There are not many battles those of us who do not take the field can fight. But the one battle we should all fight is the battle of callousness. Of apathy, that seeps through our veins, overwhelms us, and makes us think we're above the sufferings of other people. Let us show a little bit of respect to the men and women who gave their lives for our country, shall we?

And we can start by doing that, by at least for now, refusing to play Pakistan at cricket.

Sincerely,

Harish Chandramouli, (EMAIL: c.harish@mindspring.com)

PS: 100 innocents -- all dead in a single day for no fault of their own. And we still want to keep acting as if nothing has changed and to keep carrying on with Pakistan as if they're the most hospitable and benevolent of neighbours? Well, aren't we a strange lot.

Harish

Mail Cricket Editor