Cricket and politics are supposed intoxicants in the subcontinent. Unfortunately, the two, quite often, are not complementary, leading to unfortunate consequences. Consider the fate of Bangladesh when it comes to the forthcoming Twenty20 World Cup that will be hosted by India and Sri Lanka. The International Cricket Council announced recently that Bangladesh will not participate in this tournament because the cricket board of that country had been unwilling to play in India. Politics, once again, had queered the pitch. The fraught diplomatic ties between New Delhi and Dhaka after the change of guard in Bangladesh left a bitter aftertaste on the proverbial twenty-two yards: earlier, the Kolkata Knight Riders, on instructions of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, had been forced to let go of Mustafizur Rahman, one of KKR’s recruits from Bangladesh. Right-wing groups in India, citing the assault on minorities in Bangladesh, demanded and received Mr Rahman’s wicket.
Given these developments, the questions that need to be asked are the following. Should sport be offered as the metaphorical sacrificial lamb to the trials and tribulations of bilateral ties? Two, did New Delhi do enough — practically and morally — when it came to addressing Bangladesh’s concerns? The answer in the first case is in the negative. This is especially so because sport has quite often been used, successfully at that, as a diplomatic tool to ease tensions. The tradition of ‘cricket diplomacy’ between India and Pakistan is a case in point. Shutting the doors on a neighbour without addressing the latter’s concerns can be interpreted as a wilful capitulation to the forces of shrillness and division on the part of the powers that be. As for the answer to the second question, India could have definitely done better. The ICC is headed by Jay Shah: cricket’s principal institutional force is also disproportionately dependent on India’s financial muscle and vulnerable to its whims. A more flexible — accommodating — position on the part of India may have yielded a different result. It is a pity that the once inspirational Asian solidarity in cricket is being fractured because of bilateral tensions. It must also be pointed out that the ICC bent over backwards and yielded to India’s demand when it refused to play in Pakistan citing security concerns during the Champions Trophy. The crux of the matter is simple. Sport, on principle, must not serve as a pitch to play the political game. Yet, all sporting nations, including India, remain guilty of this.