When India and Pakistan are playing, it is never merely a game of cricket. The fact that the neighbours have not clashed for years – they have only played limited-over matches on neutral grounds like Bangladesh or Britain – made the encounter in the final of the ICC Championship Trophy all the more exciting and thrilling.
After getting thrashed in their first match by India, Pakistan made an impressive recovery to roundly beat far superior teams in the next three encounters – South Africa, Sri Lanka and England in the semi-finals to book their final date with arch-rival India. It was perhaps the most incredible comeback in the sport’s history. Yet no one expected Sarfraz’s inexperienced rookies to effectively confront the formidable collective experience and the far superior skills of Virat Kohli’s battle-hardened squad, let alone beat it.
What an incredible match and what an outstanding performance by a team that had been written off by everyone and had been the least-favoured of all. But then, history is full of such uneven encounters when a weak, inexperienced side defeats the more formidable opposition.
In a rare tribute, the Indian Express wrote: “Pakistan’s cricket team is celebrated not just because it triumphs against the odds. It is celebrated because its players raise the sport to dizzying levels – leaving us with a lingering feeling of having witnessed something really special”. In its many imperfections, lack of training and experience and the team taking on a far superior opposition, Pakistan reminded me of Aamir Khan’s impoverished, irregular eleven in that great Bollywood classic Lagaan.
A Pakistani friend says her ecstatic, impressionable eight-year old said it was like the historic Battle of Badr, when 313 early Muslims took on a far more formidable opposition of more than a thousand people of Makkah. That is how most Pakistanis – and Indians – increasingly seem to view the battle of Oval: the battle between good and evil’. And the more India refuses to play the neighbour by accusing it of exporting terror, the more intense these rare encounters will become. It’s a war by other means.
No wonder the final in London was watched by more than a billion people around the world, with people travelling from across the continent and beyond to be a part of the thriller.
But it was worth every penny– even for people like us who occasionally tune in when India and Pakistan are playing. Pakistan prevailed from the word go and excelled in all areas of the game – as generously acknowledged by Virat Kohli. The extraordinary player and an even greater leader of men that he is, Kohli has consistently shown class, accepting defeat with great dignity and grace.
The rare camaraderie and bonhomie that the two teams demonstrated on the field before and after the match – Mahindra Singh Dhoni’s cute selfie with Pakistan skipper Sarfraz’s baby in particular won millions of hearts – has been in marked contrast to the cussedness and pettiness shown by their respective nations, especially politicians and media warriors.
It was fascinating to see the transformation of TV anchors, from proudly wearing Team India’s blue t-shirts and chanting ‘Invincible India’ to turning blue in the face with rage at what they saw as the greatest letdown in history. They accused Kohli’s men of deliberately snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
Instead of treating it like any other sporting encounter and accepting the outcome with graciousness, the fanatics on both sides once again went berserk, giving the whole affair the colour of a proxy war between the nuclear neighbours. Anyone who didn’t see it as such was a traitor.
As Pakistani commentator Hamid Mir put it: “Indians and Pakistanis love to play against each other, but they hate to lose. Especially with cricket, the mother of all games; they hate to play it like the sport that it is. They behave as if it is a bloody war”.
The fact that relations between the neighbours have not been at their best several years – especially since Modi took charge – hardly helps.
This is not the first time Kashmir has celebrated Pakistan’s victory. However, given our ‘special relationship’ with Kashmir, everyone seemed to understand the sentiment in the past. But this is not the case any longer. With self-anointed guardians of national interest like Arnab Goswami watching over the ‘republic’, no one can get away with the sin of applauding the enemy. Joining the chorus and trying to project the Indo-Pak match as a litmus test of patriotism, a smug Goswami declared that he would be “watching” people who support the Pakistan team in India. Everyone, he thundered, should declare their support for India or else move to Pakistan.
Again, this is not the first time that the patriotic credentials of Indian Muslims have been questioned during an India-Pakistan encounter. People like Bal Thackeray built entire careers by accusing the community of being Pakistan’s ‘fifth column’. Today, with Modi in power in Delhi and the country all but declared the Hindu Rashtra, these chance encounters between the neighbours bring nothing but misery to India’s 200 million Muslims.
As Pratik Sinha of Alt News reported, soon after the match several videos claiming to show Muslims celebrating Pakistan’s success went viral on social media and WhatsApp groups: “While one of the videos is from Pakistan, the other video is many months old and was shot in Vadodara, Gujarat. They are being circulated stating these celebrations happened in Delhi, Vadodara and Mira Road in Mumbai”.
ABP News TV also proved that at least one video – purported to be from Mira Road, Mumbai – showing young Muslims in whites caps wildly celebrating Pakistan’s victory was actually from Pakistan. But who cares about such rejoinders? The damage has already been done.
It reminds me of a similar video circulated by Zionist groups, which purportedly showed Palestinians celebrating 9/11 terror attacks. However, this was an old video celebrating something else altogether.
It is one thing for desperate television warriors to whip up jingoistic fervour to boost their TRPs and it is quite another for the state to go after citizens and accuse them of sedition and infidelity towards the country.
Across India – from Madhya Pradesh to Karnataka to Kerala – scores of innocent Muslims have been arrested on the charges of sedition, which can earn them a life sentence under an archaic, 19th century law enacted by a colonial power to deal with recalcitrant subjects.
Even if they applauded a foreign team that they liked, it is no crime under international law and even under the Indian Penal Code, as the Supreme Court has repeatedly stressed. Thousands of desis in Britain regularly cheer for India when it plays England – the national team – and no one questions their patriotism.
But this has never been about the law or patriotism. The issue here is about the rising intolerance across the country where everyone is regimented to fall in line and live, eat and dress according to the whims and fancies of the powers that be.
Given the climate in the country where all things Muslim are radioactive, even a friendly glance or sentiment towards Pakistan now amounts to sedition and treachery to the nation. When will India and Pakistan grow up and engage with each other like mature adults and, above all, treat sports like sports? All said and done, it is just a game. In addition, sports are supposed to bring us together – beyond borders and barriers – not further divide us.
The writer is an award-winning journalist.
Email: aijaz.syedhotmail.com