oppn parties Why This Aversion To Letting India Play In Pakistan In International Events?

News Snippets

  • Sikh extremists attacked a cinema hall in London that was playing Kangana Ranaut's controversial film 'Emergency'
  • A Delhi court directed the investigating agencies to senstize officers to collect nail clippings, fingernail scrappings or finger swab in order to get DNA profile as direct evidence of sexual attack is often not present and might result in an offender going scot free
  • Uniform Civil Code rules cleared by state cabinet, likely to be implemented in the next 10 days
  • Supreme Court reiterates that there is no point in arresting the accused after the chargesheet has been filed and the investigation is complete
  • Kolkata court sentences Sanjoy Roy, the sole accused in the R G Kar rape-murder case, to life term. West Bengal government and CBI to appeal in HC for the death penalty
  • Supreme Court stays criminal defamation case against Rahul Gandhi for his remarks against home minister Amit Shah in Jharkhand during the AICC plenary session
  • Government reviews import basket to align it with the policies of the Trump administration
  • NCLT orders liquidation of GoAir airlines
  • Archery - Indian archers bagged 2 silver in Nimes Archery tournament in France
  • Stocks make impressive gain on Monday - Sensex adds 454 points to 77073 and Nifty 141 points to 23344
  • D Gukesh draws with Fabiano Caruana in the Tata Steel chess tournament in the Netherlands
  • Women's U-19 T20 WC - In a stunning game, debutants Nigeria beat New Zealand by 2 runs
  • Rohit Sharma to play under Ajinkye Rahane in Mumbai's Ranji match against J&K
  • Virat Kohli to play in Delhi's last group Ranji trophy match against Saurashtra. This will be his first Ranji match in 12 years
  • The toll in the Rajouri mystery illness case rose to 17 even as the Centre sent a team to study the situation
Calling the case not 'rarest of rare', a court in Kolkata sentenced Sanjay Roy, the only accused in the R G Kar rape-murder case to life in prison until death
oppn parties
Why This Aversion To Letting India Play In Pakistan In International Events?

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2022-10-19 03:55:50

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.

BCCI secretary Jay Shah, on the first day of his second term started a controversy by saying that India will not travel to Pakistan for the Asia Cup to be held in that country next year. He said that as the chief of Asian Cricket Council, he will try to ensure that the tournament is not held in Pakistan but at a neutral venue so that India can participate. As expected, there was an immediate response from the Pakistani side with reports indicating that the PCB might also pull out from the ODI World Cup to be held in India in 2023.

The Asia Cup has been held at neutral venues for long, precisely to overcome this issue of travel aversion on part of India and Pakistan. In 2023 also, it might be held in UAE. India and Pakistan have not had a bilateral series since 2012. That is fine as long as the government does not feel that conditions are suitable to hold such matches and does not allow permission. But when it comes to international tournaments, the thinking should be different.

By travelling to Pakistan to play in the Asia Cup, the Indian team will not confirm that all is well between India and Pakistan. It will only fulfil its obligations as a member of the ICC and the ACC to play anywhere the tournament has been slotted. Similarly, when Pakistan comes to play in India in the ODI World Cup in 2023, they would be fulfilling their obligation. Nothing more should be read into these exchanges and they should be allowed.

The whole world knows that India and Pakistan have huge irreconcilable differences over a host of issues. Yet, the whole world also knows that India and Pakistan compete against each other in sporting events on neutral venues. Has not the time now come to keep the politics aside and allow Indian teams to travel to Pakistan for international events and welcome Pakistani teams to India for similar, multi-nation events?

Pictgure courtesy: dawn.com (caption ours)