Just not cricket: India, Pak players’s disservice to the sport

THE Asia Cup cricket tournament has left a bitter aftertaste that will not go away in a hurry. Playing against each other for the first time after the Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor, India and Pakistan were unable to shed the baggage of geopolitical tensions. The ‘no handshake’ row laid bare the acrimony that pushed cricket to the sidelines. And things got even worse as the event progressed. The final, easily the most exciting India-Pak clash since the Melbourne thriller of October 2022, was followed by a farcical drama. The Indian team refused to accept the trophy from Asian Cricket Council chairman and Pakistan minister Mohsin Naqvi. Offended by the snub, he left the stadium with the silverware. Unfazed, the victors posed with an imaginary trophy, even as fireworks vainly tried to give an all-is-well impression.

The tournament will be remembered mostly for the wrong reasons. That’s unfortunate because it witnessed memorable performances from dashing Indian opener Abhishek Sharma, spin wizard Kuldeep Yadav, Pakistan’s Sahibzada Farhan and Shaheen Shah Afridi, and Sri Lanka’s Pathum Nissanka. And Tilak Varma played a match-winning knock in the all-important final. However, all this was overshadowed by political one-upmanship and hypernationalism. Complaints flew thick and fast as grownups behaved like petulant schoolkids.

It’s regrettable that some players from both sides allowed themselves to be used as pawns in a proxy war of sorts. The Indian team was under immense pressure — public sentiment across the country was generally not in favour of playing against Pakistan at all. Fear of a backlash forced the Suryakumar Yadav-led team to take desperate steps to pacify and please their compatriots. Frustrated by their failure to beat India, the Pakistanis had no qualms about stooping to new lows. The ultimate loser was cricket, whose time-tested potential to foster goodwill lay in ruins. The floodgates that have been opened bode ill for the most popular sport in the subcontinent.