Wrong one against Bangladesh: From shared history to sporting hostility in a region already on edge

In the South Asian region we live in, with a shared history of strife, religious divisions marred by violence, wars and terrorism, playing each other on the sports field was once seen as a balm that could heal the festering wounds of the past. Or was this a naive mind’s dream which never understood the deep-rooted prejudices and its violent responses — both emotional and physical — to a world that is now being run on hate and vengeful retaliation? Is sport in danger of becoming a weapon of “mass destruction”, a tool that is being used too frequently to score political points?

As we mull over the ramifications of the new battlefield that has been created between India and Bangladesh and the stunning swiftness with which it has erupted, the cricketing world is groping for sane answers. India has had no acrimonious history with a nation it helped get its freedom from the tyranny of Pakistan in 1971.

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was the hero of that independence movement whose historic role in the creation of Bangladesh is undeniable. Yet, his own nation is now erasing that memory through violent and even obnoxious means. His daughter, Sheikh Hasina, who wielded power with an iron hand with dictatorial intent, had to flee Dhaka in a violent overthrow of her regime and is now a fugitive from her country, living in India’s shelter.

India had another historic role to play in 2000, this time in Bangladesh’s cricket history. The Marwari businessman from Kolkata, Jagmohan Dalmiya, the then presiding deity of Indian and world cricket, played a significant role in granting Bangladesh the status of a Test-playing nation. When it played its first-ever Test match in Dhaka against India, Sheikh Hasina, who was then Prime Minister, feted Dalmiya and publicly acknowledged the role he had played in putting her country in the elite echelons of Test-playing nations.

Over the years, Bangladesh has stood by India whenever India has taken strong, harsh measures against the Pakistan cricket board. In the geopolitics of the region, Bangladesh was a friend, a strong sporting ally that helped India strengthen its administrative hold on the subcontinent’s cricket politics. While Dalmiya was the architect of creating an Asian lobby, that included even Pakistan, in challenging the White stranglehold over cricketing affairs, his successors, including the wily politician Sharad Pawar, followed suit. It is this mutually beneficial relationship in the fascinatingly intriguing politics of cricket that India has chosen to damage.

It is an undeniable fact that India would have found it difficult, if not impossible, to overthrow the England-centric control of the White nations over cricket administration without the help of its neighbours Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Post-1990, economic liberalisation policies led to the entry of multinational companies and private television into the Indian space, benefitting cricket immensely and multiplying the cricket board’s profits. Post-IPL, the Indian board is sitting on a foamed carpet of staggering revenues that gives it unimaginable control over decision-making in cricketing affairs of the world. Even England and Australia act like subjugate partners. There is no one to challenge India’s hegemony.

In the past, the Indian cricket board had never been a preserve of one political party. It has had important members from the Congress and the BJP at the helm, but domestic politics or a government’s ambitions rarely affected its decision-making. Dalmiya and company, that included businessmen like AC Muthiah and N Srinivasan, had their goals set, which were more financial than political in nature. There were many times when they would challenge a government’s diktat which they believed was not in the interest of Indian cricket and its finances.

The growth of the BJP and the beginning of the Modi era from 2014 onwards has changed this equation. The Indian board is now the preserve of the BJP, ever since Jay Shah took over its control. From that prism, preventing Bangladesh’s Mustafizur Rahman from playing for Kolkata Knight Riders, putting on hold its tour of Bangladesh and scoffing at Bangladesh’s threat to withdraw from the T20 World Cup that India is hosting, is to be seen as the Indian government’s decision and not just of the Indian board.

The anger of the social media warriors who fret, fume and sweat over the violence against Hindu minorities in Bangladesh is justified. But why target India’s most popular film star worldwide, Shah Rukh Khan, for a purely cricketing decision of hiring Mustafizur for his IPL team, while remaining silent on how Christian minorities were treated during Christmas in India and the Muslims are generally targeted in our country?

This is not a game of tit for tat. Human emotions are like a surging river and can be manipulated to flow in any desired direction. The flames of retaliation and revenge are easy to ignite but once lit, the devastation caused by it won’t identify the race, colour, caste and religion of the sufferer. This contentious debate on the dangerous mix of politics with sport that could have catastrophic consequences evokes in me poet Rahat Indori’s wise and poignant warning so beautifully put:“Lagegi aag to aayenge ghar kayi zad mein; Yahaan par sirf hamaara makaan thodi hai” (If a fire is lit, it will engulf many homes. Mine is not the only house here).

— The writer is the author of ‘Not Quite Cricket’ and ‘Not Just Cricket’