Sports Need not be Divorced from Politics

Sports Need not be Divorced from Politics

STATECRAFT BY HAPPYMON JACOB

Politics should not spill over into sports; but that is no reason why sports should not spill over into politics. The former is negative and can have negative repercussions but the latter is healthy and progressive. When politics spills over into sports, politicians can use sports to settle their scores, promote their people and to make money etc. etc. On the other hand, if sports spill over into politics, it can carry the sportsman spirit into politics and can sometimes help society resolve its conflicts. One might, however, look at the sporting history of India and Pakistan and argue that cricket matches between the two countries, the most commonly played game between the two countries, have often been nothing less than battles. Losing a cricket match not only meant losing to an enemy country but also facing verbal and physical attacks back home.

A considered second look at the cricketing history between India and Pakistan would make it clear to us that the matches were played like battles because politics interfered with sports, because they were not playing cricket but fighting wars by extension, not because sports spilled over into politics. The cricketers were given briefs to fight for the honour of religion, nation and country: not to enjoy the game or to entertain the crowds, the two principal aims of any game. That sports can have positive effects on politics is also borne by the history of ‘Cricket Diplomacy’ between India and Pakistan and ‘Ping Pong Diplomacy’ between the United States and China in the 1970s. That is history. Welcome to the new era of cricketing between the two ‘unfriendly’ neighbours. The widely-circulated images of Indian crowds cheering Pakistani cricketer Sohail Tanveer‘s winning shot in Mumbai (the shot that defeated the Chennai team led by the Indian captain M S Dhoni) in the final match of the DLF Indian Premier League (DLF IPL) tournament indicate that Indian crowds do not necessarily hate Pakistani cricketers. The recently concluded DLF IPL tournament that went on for 44 days was not only immensely popular all over the country but also first confused and then redefined cricketing loyalties in India and Pakistan. Thirteen Pakistani players had been members of the eight Indian teams that participated in the tournament. The Calcutta team made extraordinary efforts to get iconic Pakistani speedster Shoaib Akhtar play for the team. Saurav Ganguly, Ishant Sharma, Salman Butt and Shoaib Akhtar (Kolkata Knight Riders) were up against Sohail Tanvir and Munaf Patel (Jaipur Rajasthan Royals). Crowds in various Indian cities where the games were played were seen cheering Pakistani players of their team and refusing to cheer for the iconic Indian players belonging to the opposing team. This is perhaps first of this kind in India and Pakistan. We have had instances where Pakistanis cheering Indian players and vice versa but not at the cost of their own players. What it shows is that labeling someone as an enemy or friend by the media and the government has a deep impact on the collective psyche of the general public. Crowds generally tend to go by what is fed to them by the media and those in power. The responsibility of changing those labels, therefore, lies with them. The famous test match played between India and Pakistan in 2004 in Lahore’s Gaddafi stadium had also witnessed unprecedented warmth shown to Indian players by Pakistani fans. That was good hospitality. What differentiates between what IPL has done and what had happened in Lahore in 2004 is the following. In Lahore, Pakistani fans were being nice and hospitable to the Indian players and fans; in the IPL tournament, the nationality of the players were surpassed and forgotten, loyalties were blurred and the spirit of the sport won the day. Pakistani players were all of a sudden no more representatives of an enemy country, and were as likable as the Indian players, and sometimes even more. The media, for a change, played down the objections raised by the Shiv Sena against the Pakistani participation in the game, and realizing that the public and the media were not concerned about their gimmicks anymore, the Shiv Sena stopped airing remarks against the Pakistani players. This is in stark contrast to what they had done in 1999 on the eve of an India Pakistan match when they had dug up the Ferozshah Kotla pitch in Delhi. The media in Pakistan and India were also facing up to the changing times – no one made any jingoistic remarks. In fact, the media in India was not even talking about ‘Pakistani players’ but as mere players of the team they were hired for, and the Pakistani media was covering and discussing the tournament (with the Geo TV live telecasting the tournament in Pakistan) as if it was happening in Lahore or Islamabad and as if the Pakistani team was playing in the tournament. Cheering for a Pakistani player in the Indian soil would have been unthinkable before the IPL began; today this has become acceptable and natural. Indian celebrities embracing Pakistani players in full view of the spectators in a cricket stadium would have been unacceptable before the IPL began; today they do it with Indian crowds cheering them. Promotion of sports as a confidence building mechanism between ‘unfriendly’ countries is an important aspect of multi-track diplomacy which many say is the way ahead between the two ‘unfriendly’ neighbors in the subcontinent. While the recent visit of the Indian foreign minister to Pakistan did not yield any results, the 44 day cricket tournament has managed to change mindsets in the two countries. It is high time the two countries gave more importance to sports as a Confidence Building Measure (CBM).

(Happymon Jacob is Assistant Professor at the Department of Strategic and Regional Studies, University of Jammu, J&K. Feedback at happymon@gmail.com).