Till very recently, dreamy cricketing fantasies, laced with a lot of wishful thinking and a pinch of gnawing dread, gave fans sleepless nights before every India-Pakistan clash. These were mostly about the game’s early face-offs that historically decided these fixtures of far-reaching consequences. Will Sunil Gavaskar be able to handle Imran Khan’s big in-swinger? When Wasim Akram bangs it short, will Sachin Tendulkar smash it over mid-wicket? Will Rohit Sharma gracefully flick the ball off his legs when Shaheen Afridi bends it into him?
All that changed at last September’s Asia Cup when cricket turned into an Indo-Pak cold war in colour-clothing and under floodlights, coming just days after the real one in fatigues under the cover of darkness. As another India vs Pakistan Sunday nears, the pre-match apprehensions are now tragically non-cricketing. Will the teams shake hands? Will Suryakumar Yadav offer tributes to the armed forces at the press conference? Will Pakistan players be mimicking fighter jets in free fall or using bats like guns?
The lead-up to the latest clash – the T20 World Cup game on a neutral venue – comes with the promise of another war sequel. This time, the political point-making and acrimony almost cancelled the game. Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, while announcing a boycott, assured his cabinet that they “have taken a very considered stance, and we should completely stand by Bangladesh … I think this is a very appropriate decision.” In India there were voices who didn’t regret the snapping of cricket. There was mistrust and hostilities from both sides with cricket as the weapon.
Then came the quick and dramatic Pakistan U-turn. With a week to go for the Great Game, the boycott was called-off. It was said, economics had called the bluff on political posturing. Where do these fickle-minded politicians leave the fans?
Forced to watch cricket through political glasses for months, all of a sudden it is game time again. In this backdrop, when the politicians have piled so much on that one game, how can it be “just another game” – the cliche that players use to downplay the match-eve tension. So, again this weekend, quite understandably, cricket would be a round of proxy war, another chance of national one-upmanship. A format lacking depth or gravitas to assess the cricketing acumen of two teams will be used to judge nations.
What about the 22 players who take the field? Members of the Indian team that returned home without the trophy at last year’s Asia Cup talk in private about the harrowing experience. The awkwardness of not shaking hands, and the embarrassment of waiting for prize distribution, wouldn’t be among their happy cricketing memories. Playing the game of their lives, they could have done without the political overtones, stifling gaze of the world, and being thrown into situations they weren’t equipped to deal with.
They will again be thrown in the colosseum with a million eyes closely following their every move, interpreting every expression. If they smile, or even dare to applaud an opponent like sportsmen generally do, they can be treated as traitors. Getting too aggressive too comes with risks. In the 1996 World Cup, Pakistan opener Aamer Sohail got carried away after hitting Venkatesh Prasad for a four. He taunted Prasad but on the next ball was clean bowled. Pakistan lost the game and Sohail went down in history as the loser who jumped the gun, a constant reminder for India and Pakistan players of how not to behave in these derbies.
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At the Asia Cup, Haris Rauf walked into the trap. Reacting to crowd taunts, he would make some war references and repeat the ‘airplane act’ after getting Indian wickets. He too seemed to be taken in by the war narrative around the game. Rauf would pay the price. He lost the plot and bowled an atrocious spell in the final as Tilak Verma took him apart.
It will be tough for the young and the inexperienced who will be playing their India-Pakistan games in years to come. India’s in-form star Ishan Kishan has played Pakistan’s senior side only once, but even in that game he didn’t get a chance to bat.
At Colombo, as an opener he is sure to face them. Ishan is known to have a temper, he has had run-ins with the game’s decision makers. He also likes a laugh and is certainly not the silent kind. Though, after his match-winning knock against Namibia, the wicketkeeper-opener said he is a changed man now. He isn’t as excitable as he used to be. He waits for his chance and doesn’t hit any ball that comes his way. He also doesn’t joke 24×7, it’s just a couple of hours now, he says. But by adding, “it’s because of Gauti bhai”, the reporters would cackle.
So is he really a changed man? Can he keep a check on his emotions in the heat of the India-Pakistan game? Back in the day, the apprehensions would have been different. Will Ishan be able to connect his pull when Afridi goes for his head at the start of the innings?
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Such are the times that being poker-faced has become the ideal template for the India-Pakistan game. It’s a tragedy that cricket’s most storied rivalry has gotten muted.
