War, sport, peace

War is brutal. Photographs and videos from Ukraine remind us of this. The plight of Indian students stranded in cities across Ukraine engaged our attention over the past couple of weeks; fatalities among them were heartbreaking, the return of the others brought us solace. The horrors of Ukraine must strengthen the resolve of peaceniks of the world, who must work doubly hard to prolong the relatively peaceful era we are living in — probably the most peaceful times in recorded history.

Though it’s abhorrent that sport be used as a political tool, perhaps it’s better to use sport to release pent up anger and frustrations than engage in warfare; as Ajay Jadeja said in a television show in Pakistan a few years ago, it’s better that sportspersons bear the brunt of the public’s anger at a defeat — that’s much preferable to bloodshed at the border.

A bit off tangent: Wouldn’t it have been much better to see George Bush Jr taking on Saddam Hussein in boxing? Or Ronald Reagan fighting Leonid Brezhnev in wrestling? Or, better still, tennis? What about Vladimir Putin vs Joe Biden? Pleasant thoughts.

For sportspersons, playing sport when war rages at home must be absolutely devastating. Many Ukrainian sportspersons have returned to their country, or enlisted in the army. Among the most famous of them is heavyweight boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk, who said: “My country and my honour are more important to me than a championship belt.” Boxer Vasiliy Lomachenko, two-time Olympics champion, came back from Greece to defend Odesa. Tennis player Sergiy Stakhovsky, who beat Roger Federer at Wimbledon nine years ago, returned from Hungary to sign up with the territorial army. “I pretty much hope that I will not have to use the gun, but if I have to, I have to,” said Stakhovsky. That’s a very discomfiting thought for a peaceable tennis player.

There have been anti-war protests in Russia, but for athletes, it’s not easy to go full-throttle against war. Years, decades of bearing the national flag on your breast, carrying it after wins, make sportspersons believe in the myth of their hyper-nationalism. Yet, some have made anti-war statements, without explicitly blaming their motherland: Emerging tennis star Andrey Rublev’s message is “no war please”; Dynamo Moscow football team player Fedor Smolov was much more daring when he wrote “No to war” on social media — and, hold your breath, added the Ukrainian flag to his message.

Retired tennis star Maria Sharapova went a step further, donating to ‘Save the Children’ as it tries to bring relief to Ukrainian children impacted by war. Men’s world No. 1 Daniil Medvedev removed the Russian flag from his Instagram account and appealed for peace, though he too could not bring himself to explicitly criticise the invasion.

Photo-bomb

Meanwhile, an ‘unarmed’ Indian missile landed in Pakistan due to ‘technical malfunction’. Much more pleasant was the engagement of the Indian and Pakistani woman cricketers when they played in the Women’s World Cup in New Zealand. India won comfortably, extending the undefeated streak against the women from across the border. There was some excitement and aggression on the field. It didn’t last, and it turned into bonhomie as Pakistan captain Bismah Maroof’s infant daughter became the star of the evening — the Indian players milled about her, coddled her, tried to get her to look into the camera held by Harmanpreet Kaur for a selfie.

Fifty years ago, in November-December 1971, even as the Pakistani army butchered Bengalis in East Pakistan and war erupted, India’s Sunil Gavaskar and Pakistan’s Intikhab Alam found themselves as teammates for the Rest of the World in Australia. Gavaskar wrote in ‘Sunny Days’ that they’d go for meals at a restaurant owned by a Pakistani, who would write down news bulletins on a napkin in Urdu and give it to Alam. Alam would ‘barely glance at it, crumple it up and throw it away’, Gavaskar wrote.

Perhaps Alam was distressed by the news of the debacle in East Pakistan, perhaps he didn’t want to revisit the memories of the frenzy of 1947, which he barely escaped with his family when he was only five. When Alam got the chance to coach the Punjab team in 2008, he grabbed it as a ‘challenge I couldn’t pass up’. It also gave him the opportunity to visit Hoshiarpur, where he was born in 1941.

As Jadeja said, even if it’s unfair on them, it’s better that sportspersons be proxies of war — because if there’s a real war, there are chances that the one after that would be fought with sticks and stones, as Einstein predicted.