Commentators on modern sport often claim it is a fundamental component of 21st century society. As Australian journalist Greg Baum had suggested while commenting on India-Pakistan cricket clashes and on the threat of cancellation on the eve of the February 2004 tour: ?Pakistan is a country that has never lacked great drama, in the past few months alone its President was nearly blown up twice, its nuclear scientists were exposed as having sold more atomic secrets than Gerry Harvey has sold televisions, and then, Osama was spotted in the hills on the border. But all these events come to nothing compared with the drama of a series against the Indians…?
The question then is: Is this merely amusing journalistic logorrhoea or is there anything of value in these comments?
Shashi Tharoor and Shahryar Khan in Shadows Across the Playing Field tries to provide answers by analysing 60 years of this intense cricketing rivalry, one, which has, on occasions superseded the intensity of the Ashes.
It is a truism that Indian and Pakistan cricketing confrontations are a barometer of Indian and Pakistani political relations. Two ancillary points may be made here: cricket once viewed as imperial cement is now perceived as national mortar, and sport, while hardly fundamental to global survival, has been a not insignificant element in imperial and post-imperial nationalistic assertion and denial. Experiences of turbulence and instability in Indian politics and the rising heat of Indo-Pak foreign relations over Kashmir may readily convert an Indo-Pak cricket match into a test of national superiority. Tharoor eloquently puts this unfortunate development in context while commenting on the first bilateral cricket series played in 1952, ?Sadly, many Pakistanis looked at cricket with India entirely from a communal perspective.? He drives his point home while commenting on the abject Pakistani surrender in India in 1979-80 under skipper Asif Iqbal, ?The tour put paid to the career of Pakistani captain Asif Iqbal. He had lost a great deal of weight, began taking tranquillizers and decided he could not handle the strain, announcing his retirement as soon as he got home. Carrying Pakistan?s national pride on one?s shoulders at a time of stress is never easy; doing it while losing to India at cricket is impossible.?
The acutely politicised nature of India-Pakistani cricket relations, which the book continuously alludes to, was best evident immediately after India?s victory on March 1, 2003, in a World Cup tie at Centurion in South Africa. Soon after the match was over, the streets and lanes of Calcutta reverberated with sounds of blowing conches, bursting crackers and chanting of slogans. At Kalighat, the city?s premier religious shrine, many were seen waving national flags with pictures of Sachin Tendulkar stuck in the middle of the Ashoka Chakra. Gujarat, on the other hand, witnessed incidents of Muslims being stopped from celebrating. There was rioting, injuries and also a death in Ahmedabad. Violence also erupted in Bangalore. In all these places, prohibitory orders were imposed and security tightened. Reactions of Indian politicians to the victory conclusively prove Tharoor?s point. Army chief NC Vij congratulated the team for their win over phone. It no longer mattered whether India made it to the Super Six, semis or final.
The question that surfaces in the context of this extreme communalisation and politicisation of cricket is whether this is a phenomenon unique to India-Pakistan cricket and whether it can ever be reversed. Interestingly, as documented in Shadows, there have been many occasions in the past where cricket has actually played a key role in dousing cross border tensions. The first series in 1952 witnessed droves of Pakistanis crossing over to India by road when civic authorities in most Indian cities went out of their way to welcome the tourists. Such scenes of people to people contact and cross border camaraderie was once again seen when thousands of Indians travelled to Pakistan on cricket visas on the occasion of the 2004 friendship tour. Unfortunately for sub-continental cricket, however, these occasions have mostly been aberrations of sorts and ?the sources of tension were never far removed.? The problem with Shadows is that the book was mostly written before the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks derailed bilateral relations and bilateral cricketing contacts completely with little chances of resumption in the near future. While Tharoor does refer to this development in concluding his section, Khan ends his section with a note of optimism. ?I am convinced that cricket will again provide the catalyst to bring about harmony, tolerance and good neighbourly relations between the two countries.?
Unfortunately for him in the post Mumbai scenario, such hopes seem unfounded. In fact, one is forced to go back to Tharoor?s concluding words, ?Many liberals on both sides of the border hope that one day India and Pakistan will enjoy relations comparable to those between United States and Canada-with open borders, shared culture and entertainment, free trade, even frequent migration. Healthy sporting competition would then be part of a healthy overall relationship; cricket matches between the two countries, followed with good natured partisanship rather than religiously inspired passion, would be the centerpiece of the new era. Sadly, I do not expect to see that kind of transformation in my lifetime. But it is something to hope for and to look forward to, one day (emphasis mine).?
The reviewer is cricket historian