Asia Cup & the many mysteries

Try to savour the irony in Rahul Dravid’s current situation, after the team got hammered in the Asia Cup. Dravid was the man who persuaded Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar to skip the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007 — the idea was that even a global T20 tournament was a non-critical (read: frivolous) event, not important enough for the three legends.

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Dravid, now the head coach, is being criticised for the team’s failure in the T20 Asia Cup. He’s trying to defend himself: “Just because we lost a couple of games, it doesn’t mean we are a terrible team.”

He’s right, but his words won’t be any solace to the fan of the T20 format; this form of cricket provides its fans mind-numbing highs and lows in succession in three hours. It’s very stimulating and thrilling, but the typical T20 fan is not particularly nuanced about the differences between the three formats of cricket. He’s looking for Test match-like consistency in T20 cricket — but that’s something that just does not exist. Dravid’s words won’t carry much weight with this fan — the knives are out, and even former India players such as Saba Karim believe Dravid’s honeymoon as coach is over.

Sans logic

Afghanistan came to the Asia Cup after being beaten by Ireland in their T20 series. In the first match of the Asia Cup, Afghanistan thrashed Sri Lanka. Then India beat Pakistan. Pakistan beat India. Sri Lanka beat Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka beat India. Pakistan scraped past Afghanistan, whom India crushed. Sri Lanka crushed Pakistan.

In just over a week’s time, the Asia Cup went something like this: Afghanistan inferior to Ireland but much better than Sri Lanka; India slightly better than Pakistan but then Pakistan slightly better than India; Sri Lanka slightly better than Afghanistan; Afghanistan almost equal with Pakistan; India very superior to Afghanistan and then Sri Lanka very, very superior to Pakistan.

Try to derive some pattern out of this, will you? No, you won’t find logic or pattern here — that’s the nature of T20 cricket. It’s a format made for the underdog, in which the modest skills of minor players can match and even surpass the vastly superior skills of the greats of the game for a brief period of time. For instance, in isolated parts of India’s match with Hong Kong, the anonymous non-stars of the island team went toe to toe with India’s superstars — Arshdeep Singh was hammered for 44 runs in his four overs, and Hong Kong racked up 152/5 in 20 overs. And then Pakistan routed Hong Kong’s band of expats for 38 runs!

Afghan show

Afghanistan’s performance through the tournament won many hearts — they shocked Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, and ran Sri Lanka close before giving Pakistan an almighty scare in Super 4 matches. Afghanistan’s story is uplifting for sentimental reasons. Just over a year ago, when the Taliban routed the army and grabbed Kabul, the future of sport in the country was threatened. When the Taliban last ruled Afghanistan, between 1996 and 2001, they imposed harsh restrictions on sports, and stadiums were turned into public execution venues. They did, however, tolerate cricket, probably because of their close affiliation with Pakistan, where a large number of refugees picked up the sport. After the Taliban were ousted in 2001, cricket grew at an explosive speed.

Since taking power in August 2021, the Taliban have implemented harsh laws based on their reading of scriptures: most forms of public entertainment are barred and women’s sport has been wiped out. But men’s cricket enjoys immunity, and the Afghanistan Cricket Board is trying to upgrade facilities in Kabul and take the sport to more and more regions of the country. However, ACB is facing financial troubles because the world has snapped ties with Afghanistan and the banking and foreign exchange systems have been disrupted.

Afghanistan’s spirited performance in the Asia Cup, thus, is creditable. It brings some joy to a country where joy has been barred by decree.

Restive neighbours

Victory in the Asia Cup would bring joy to two other countries in despair, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, when they meet in the final. Both are facing severe financial troubles — Sri Lanka has defaulted on its commitments while Pakistan has been close to defaulting. Pakistan has also been hit by a calamitous flood that has destroyed lives, livelihoods and crops.

Then again, can a win in a cricket tournament be a solace to those who have lost their loved ones, their home and hearth and cattle and food, to a natural disaster?

The Asia Cup brought back some ugly truths about South Asia: There’s a deep, historical chasm among the fascinating spectrum of people who live here. This was seen in the case of Arshdeep Singh after his dropped catch against Pakistan. There’s anger between Pakistan and Afghanistan fans after their hard-fought Super 4 match. Years ago, a Pakistani Punjabi auntyji in London said to this writer: ‘People who came from UP and Bihar to Pakistan in 1947 were fitna — troublemakers!’ She harboured similar distrust for Pathans and Sindhis.

After the Pakistan-Afghanistan match, this distrust for Pathans is now being played in mainstream media in Pakistan — Shoaib Akhtar and Javed Miandad said Afghan players are ungrateful. After Naseem Shah hit match-winning sixers off Fazalhaq Farooqi, Akhtar, a Punjabi, said: ‘Pathan thrashed Pathan!’ Afghan refugees are being lampooned as menial workers and street hawkers. But the trouble is that it’s impossible to tell a Pakistani Pathan apart from an Afghan Pathan! A cricket match is causing all this. Is sport really worth it?