Thursday, February 19, 2004

Should India tour Pakistan?

This question has been in the minds of every Indian on whether India should go ahead with its cricket tour of Pakistan or not. Anyway now that the foreign minister has given its approval, it is time for sound thinking from every Indian.
Rohit Brijnath while writing in BBC said that there is enormous pressure on the players. "Reasonable people want nations with so much in common to end their enmity - but cricket cannot fix this. The distrust between India and Pakistan is too deep to be bridged by a cricket match. Let us not expect men in white flannels to do what politicians for years have been unable to. Their strength is cover drives not diplomacy, and it is foolish to invest cricket with more importance than it deserves. They want the killings in Kashmir to stop. They want the nuclear muscle-flexing to end. But cricket cannot fix this."
He is right, people on both countries cannot expect 50 years of acrimony to end with a cricket tour. Treat this just as any other tour.
Rajdeep sardesai while writing in NDTV echoes similar thoughts. "should our cricket team go to Pakistan? Despite all the pressures, I believe it should. It should go precisely because we believe that all Pakistanis are congenital India-bashers, with a gun in their hands and jehad on their lips. Somehow, the stereotypes of two nations at constant war have prevented us from even attempting to deal with each other in a remotely 'normal' manner."

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