Cricket is a strong political tool and has had a major relationship with politics in other world countries like UK and Australia too; the 1932-33 ‘Bodyline Controversy’ had escalated tensions between the United Kingdom and Australia and so severe was the tension that business between the two countries was adversely affected as citizens of each country displayed a preference for not buying goods manufactured in the other; when the UK suspended its bilateral ties with Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, the England and Wales Cricket Board had also backed its government by cancelling the 2009 tour to the country
LAHORE: Sports have certainly had a magical effect in bringing the most hostile of enemy countries of the world closer for some time at least, embrace each other in front of the camera, shake hands and dine together.
While the “Ping-Pong Diplomacy” had helped bring about a thaw in the US-China relationship during the 1970’s as the exchange of their Table Tennis players had paved the way for President Richard Nixon’s historic February 1972 visit to Beijing and hence end 25 years of the state of both sides being incommunicado, the game of Cricket has also helped Pak-India tensions ease down even though temporarily.
Since Cricket has always been used as a platform by establishments in both Pakistan and India to improve ties and reduce bitterness, the visiting Indian External Affairs Sushma Swaraj would do a service to peace by announcing the commencement of the bilateral series in Sri Lanka to the sheer delight of over 1.2 billion Indians and Pakistanis on the globe.
Cricket can surely do and help achieve what even the Simla Agreement, the Lahore Declaration and the Agra Summit failed to accomplish despite all the media hypes, hopes and projections.
Remember, in February 1987, amidst a lot of tension, the then Pakistani ruler General Zia-ul-Haq had surprisingly visited Jaipur to see the Pak-India Cricket Test match and shake hands with both teams on the ground.
His visit and dinner with the Indian Premier Rajiv Gandhi had literally evaporated the war talks and had bridged an ominous diplomatic vacuum—even if it just proved to be a quick-fix or a temporary solution. An “eyeball to eyeball” situation was certainly averted.
Later, General Zia had flown in an Indian Air Force helicopter to visit the shrine of highly respected Muslim saint Hazrat Moeen-ud-Din Chishti Ajmeri in the nearby town of Ajmer.
General Zia had claimed that his tour was in response to an invitation by the Indian Cricket Control Board.
In 1991, some Shiv Sena stalwarts had dug up the cricket pitch at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium on the eve of a Pak-India fixture, leading to cancellation of the entire series between the two nations.
In 2000, Shiv Sena had repeated its act at New Delhi’s Feroze Shah Kotla ground to protest against the Pakistan Cricket team’s proposed visit.
The two times the cricket World Cup has been held in the subcontinent, in 1987 and then again in 1996, the Pakistani and Indian authorities were not only willing to join hands with each other in bidding for the tournaments, but also in hosting the matches—-irrespective of diplomatic blockades.
Then in 2004, India had toured Pakistan after a break of 15 years to bury mutual hostility.
In an attempt to replicate the cricket diplomacy of the past, General Pervez Musharraf had also visited India in 2005—ostensibly for witnessing a Cricket match.
On March 30, 2011, the then Pakistani Premier Yousaf Raza Gilani had travelled to Mohali on invitation of his Indian counterpart Dr. Manmohan Singh to witness the Cricket World Cup semi-final between the two estranged neighbours.
According to the CNN, Gilani’s visit came a day after Pakistan had agreed in principle to allow a tour by an Indian commission in connection with the investigations into the Mumbai assault blamed on the Pakistani militant groups.
During their talks in New Delhi, the Indian and Pakistani Home Secretaries had pledged to set up a “hotline” on terror threats.
It is true that whenever the two nations are at daggers drawn with each other, Cricket remains suspended too. For example, there were no Pak-India Cricket matches during the 1961-1978 period, which had witnessed two wars between the neighbours.
Beyond any doubt, Cricket is a strong political tool and has had a strong relationship with politics in other world countries like United Kingdom and Australia too.
The 1932-33 “Bodyline Controversy,” which refers to tactics of the then England Cricket team to bowl at the body of Australian batting stars like Sir Don Bradman and injuring them deliberately, had escalated tensions between United Kingdom and Australia.
Public reaction was strong in both the nations.
The Governor of South Australia, who was visiting London at that time, had told his British counterparts that the “Bodyline Controversy” would dent the bilateral trade.
The standoff was settled only when the then Australian Prime Minister had met with members of his country’s Cricket Board officials and had told them that if the British public boycott the Aussie goods, it could result in severe economic hardships! The Australian Board had then withdrawn the allegation of unsportsmanlike behaviour against the Englishmen.
So severe was the tension that business between the two countries was adversely affected as citizens of each country had displayed a preference for not buying goods manufactured in the other. Australian commerce also suffered in British colonies in Asia.
To cite another example, when the United Kingdom had suspended its bilateral ties with Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe due to the African dictator’s controversial 2008 Presidential election, the England and Wales Cricket Board had also backed its government by cancelling the 2009 tour to the country.
Although negativity, hostility and pessimism have marred the Indo-Pak relationship since partition, continuous efforts on both sides in recent past have somehow continued at various levels to resolve the issues pertaining to Kashmir, Siachen Glacier, Sir Creek boundary, violations of the Line of Control and terrorism etc.
During the last one decade or so, after each bilateral dialogue was held between the two nuclear foes despite all the “historical baggage” they were carrying, tensions did dilute to some extent and contentious issues were deliberated upon.
However, ice has never actually melted in totality because numerous incidents like the 2007 Samjhota Express massacre in India and the November 26, 2008 Mumbai attacks have not only triggered the blame game, but have also stymied any concrete progress and march towards lasting peace.
The most recent series of bilateral dialogues had started on January 6, 2004 after the then Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had landed in Islamabad for the Saarc Summit.
Vajpayee and the then Pakistani President, General Pervez Musharraf, had agreed to start a dialogue on all the thorny matters.
The two-way bus service and trade across Line of Control in Kashmir were initiated in 2005 and 2008 respectively.
Between 2011 and 2013, the Asif Zardari-led PPP regime had avoided to raise the Kashmir issue as a priority in its dialogue with New Delhi.
The Pak-India Home Secretaries had then met in New Delhi on March 28-29, 2011 to agree for the establishment of a “Terror Hotline.”
In September-October 2011, the then Pakistani Commerce Minister Makhdoom Amin Fahim had visited Delhi and Mumbai with a delegation of 70 business magnates to discuss some Customs-related matters.
On November 2, 2011, the Pakistani Federal Cabinet had granted the Most-Favoured Nation status to India.
Basically, between March 2011 and August 2012, several parleys were held at various levels to find a solution, but hawks had dominated the doves as usual—so both nations moved one step forward, and two steps back.
In January 2012, the then Pakistani Petroleum Minister Dr. Asim Hussain had toured New Delhi for talks on energy-related matters.
During the same month, Indian businessmen had met their Pakistani counterparts in Lahore and Karachi to apprise them of customs procedures, regulations, certification requirements and tariff structure of goods entering their country.
In February 2012, Indian Commerce Minister Anand Sharma was in Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi with a group of 150 top Indian businessmen.
In March 2012, the Pakistani Petroleum Secretary had flown to the Indian capital to attend the 7th Asian Gas conference.
An integrated checkpost and a new gate for bilateral trade were set up at the Attari-Wagah border on April 13, 2012.
In June 2012, talks were held in New Delhi to determine boundaries on the controversial Sir Creek issue.
In July 2012, officials of the Pakistani ministries of Trade, Foreign Affairs and Petroleum had visited India to discuss the import of petroleum products from across the border.
Between July 1 and 6, 2012, a delegation of Pakistan Rangers had visited Delhi for talks on border-related issues with their Indian counterparts.
Between July 3 and 6, 2012, the Pak-India Foreign Secretaries had met in Delhi.
Same month, officials from two countries had met in Islamabad to discuss the possibility of expanding the Line of Control trade and draft some Confidence Building Measures.
About two years ago on December 24, 2013, the long-awaited meeting of the Pak-India Directors General Military Operations (DGMOs) was held and it was agreed to stabilise the Line of Control by making sure that firing stopped.
It was agreed that if any untoward incident still occurred, it would be contained by using the existing mechanisms of telephonic contact between the DGMOs and by staging a flag meeting of the local commanders.
A meeting between the Director Generals of Pakistan Rangers (Punjab) and the Indian Border Security Force was then held in Lahore on December 24-26, 2013.
This interaction had resulted in some measures for the management of the Pak-India borders. This meeting was also viewed as a positive development.
It was on December 26, 2013 that the then Indian Foreign Minister had underlined the need for pursuing dialogue with Pakistan.
On the Pakistani side, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his Advisor on Foreign and Security Affairs, Sartaj Aziz, had already emphasised the need for improving relations with India.
In August 2014, then Pak-India Directors General of Military Operations had again spoken to each other on hotline in a bid to defuse tensions along the heavily militarised Line of Control.
In September 2014, India had yet again blamed Pakistan for ‘derailing’ the dialogue process between the two countries, but was careful to say there is ‘no full stop’ in diplomatic relations. Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had said people always moved forward after short pauses, indicating that there might be a window for resumption of talks in the near future.
Since assuming power in May 2014, the Bharatiya Janata Party has sharply criticised the previous Congress-led government for is “misguided diplomacy towards Pakistan.”
The year 2014 was characterised by another round of tension in relations between the two countries. Islamabad had emphasised the presence of some fundamental differences with New Delhi, adding that the process of normalisation was hampered by the lack of composite dialogue between the countries.
During the September 2014 session of the United Nations General Assembly, Pakistan had severely criticised the position of India directed at blocking the holding of a referendum in Kashmir.
The main accusation of the Indian party came down to the characterisation of Pakistan, as a “main source of terrorism.”
At the September 2014 session of the United Nations General Assembly, Pakistan had called on the General Assembly to prevent the creation of new permanent seats in the Security Council and at the same time emphasised the need to strengthen the role of the 193 members of the Assembly. Summing up, Pakistan had vehemently opposed granting India the status of a permanent member of the UN Security Council.
A little later, in January 2015, this point was again voiced during the visit of President Barack Obama in New Delhi. While Obama had expressed support for India’s candidature to the UN Security Council, the Pakistani media had sharply reacted to this statement.
Basically, several traditional and new “painful points” appeared in the relations between Islamabad and New Delhi in 2014 and the first half of 2015.
These included the unabated armed conflicts along the Line of Control and Working boundary in Kashmir since September 2014.
Islamabad had once again accused New Delhi of using Afghan territory for terrorist attacks in Pakistan, as well as the involvement of the Indian intelligence agency (RAW) to the activities of terrorist organisations in Pakistan.
There was a growth of confrontation between the two nations for influence in Afghanistan and the continuous Indian “proxy war” escalated to attain regional hegemony.
In February 2015, when the Modi government had joined the rush for a conventional arms race, Pakistan had stated that it had never been a part of an arms race with India and would adhere to this policy in the future. Islamabad has also expressed concerns at the deterioration of the strategic imbalance during heightened Pakistan-India tensions.
