DC Edit | Cricket Wins As Pak Agrees To Play India In T20 WC

Having run a soap opera out of their boycott threat for more than a week, Pakistan did a U-turn in opting to keep all its engagements in the T20 World Cup, paving the way for the India match on Sunday that has become a showpiece of international white ball cricket. The drama of India-Pakistan cricket matches which boil over with the jingoistic elements of tribalism will continue, much to the delight of global cricket fans.

Cricket, specifically the T20 World Cup, is the winner but only because of its financial clout. Pakistan would have been hard put to it to absorb the huge losses from a partial boycott that may have brought financial sanctions from the ICC besides the threat of being sued by the broadcasters for a staggering loss of revenue as each India-Pakistan encounter is said to be worth around Rs 4,500 crore.

It is a fair call that the game should go on even if it becomes so in this case only because a morally as well as financially bankrupt Pakistan could not sustain the illogic for too long of pulling out of an India match at a neutral venue just to show solidarity with Bangladesh. The latter may have nursed a grievance of not being granted the same privilege of playing their cricket against India in a third Asian country and so had to withdraw from the competition.

The speciousness of Pakistan’s stand was always risible. No security threat could be imagined for cricketers in India. However volatile the situation in Bangladesh has been where at least a score of Hindus have been done to death in the wake of a regime change, there was little likelihood of any of the animus by way of anti-Bangladesh sentiment in India spilling over into the sporting arena. And Pakistan, which toured India as recently as in the winter of 2023 to play all its ODI World Cup matches, should have known that too.

To play politics with cricket while saying there should be no politics in sport is an established form of hypocrisy that has been practised worldwide. But Pakistan may have taken it a bit too far this time before reality dawned that it could not afford the bill. Its cricket board, like the country itself, just does not have enough in the kitty to be able to suffer financial loss and the privilege of being at the elite table of the game.

International cricket, with its multi-billion broadcasting and streaming rights is big business and it is the financial clout of the ICC, buttressed by India’s ability to attract huge rights revenues, that may have thrust this decision on the state-controlled PCB though a word from the president of the host country Sri Lanka to the Pakistan Prime Minister may have helped ease the path.

What made the rapprochement process even more of a soap opera was the intercession by the Bangladesh cricket board, which had caused all the drama by refusing to play in Kolkata and Mumbai. Their anxieties over losing their international cricket links may have led to an awakening about the need to be in the sport for its players and its people who make a substantial fan base in their millions. Why did they not think of all this earlier.

It is, however, a triumph of sport ironing out grave political differences that makes a smooth conduct of the current edition of the T20 World Cup possible. As the host of the event, India should be happy at the outcome though it may have started this charade of boycotts by tearing up the IPL contract of a Bangladesh cricketer. But, as they say in sport as in life, all's well that ends well.