DC Edit | ‘No handshakes’ Is Not Cricket
A reason for their playing Pakistan was not purely commercial as the two nations have always kept their commitments to play in multilateral events since 1984 when they first met in the Asia Cup in Sharjah
Sport is war minus the shooting’, George Orwell wrote because he believed sporting contests evoked hypernationalism and would only help increase the ill-will between nations. Proof of Orwellian perspicacity may have been seen in the way the India-Pakistan cricket match in the Asia Cup in Dubai unfolded with Team India players refusing to observe the sporting code of conduct in shaking hands with their opponents after soundly beating them in a neutral arena in Dubai, UAE.
Coming so soon on the heels of the Pakistan-sponsored terror attack in Pahalgam in April and the consequent military conflict in May, the fact that India was playing against Pakistan at cricket had raised the hackles of the people. It was in fear of the adverse reaction of much of India which bristled against any contact with Pakistan that the team may have thought up this bizarre way of showing its contempt for the opponent.
A reason for their playing Pakistan was not purely commercial as the two nations have always kept their commitments to play in multilateral events since 1984 when they first met in the Asia Cup in Sharjah. But, once they had chosen to play in conformity with the principle that participation in such events is the norm and boycotts are the exception, they should have observed all the courtesies associated with the gentleman’s game of cricket, particularly that of the captains shaking hands before the toss and the players and the support staff after the game.
If sport, especially a non-contact game like cricket, does not follow the spirit in which it is to be played, regardless of the outcome which may depend on which team played well on a given day, it may lose its very purpose. Not without reason has the phrase ‘It’s not cricket’ become such a telling metaphor for fair play. The BCCI, which controls the game with its financial clout, may have seen its purpose served in participating in the Asia Cup which it is hosting in the UAE, but it is guilty of running with the hare and hunting with the hounds.
