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Fri, 22 Jan, 2010,02:22 AM |
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There is a huge amount of breast-beating threnody at the perceived snub of Pakistan players in not being picked for the IPL 3, despite being in the auction circuit. |
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Pakistan leaders, players and media are fuming at this alleged slight, and all manner of dark stories are doing the rounds there. While Pakistan has claimed that the IPL franchises dropped Pakistan players like unwanted hot potatoes at the behest of New Delhi, the latter, however, has done well to point out that it has nothing to do with what is happening in the IPL.
It is particularly naive for Pakistan to keep harping on the fact that it is the reigning world Twenty20 champion, and hence it is a double fiasco for it. Pakistan is churlish by swearing to take revenge for this purported slur.
It is only making itself laughable with its strange non-seqitur statements like, ‘Pak players will not be available for IPL 3’, when all along they were clamouring for inclusion. It is easy and facile for Pakistan to imagine murky conspiracy theories, but it should wake up to the stark reality that IPL is, and will be, a commercial proposition always. And it’s a truism of this world: ‘it is difficult to quibble with the ways of the market’.
Cricket has often been a source of strengthening ties. In the past, politicians from both sides have turned to cricket to reduce tension and tried to boost cultural links in what experts have called ‘Track-II Diplomacy’ at times of intractable diplomatic deadlocks. The IPL saga brings home the fact that a lack of progress on political dialogue will cast a shadow on areas where the two countries have done relatively well like culture and sports.
Yet, it is also a fact that the whole thing could have been done with a lot more tact and finesse. Pakistani players were given false hope and led along the garden path, so to say, until the very last minute, literally.
Why did the eight franchises request the eleven Pakistani players up for selection if their policy was not to pick players that were not certain of availability? Of course, the IPL brouhaha has come at the most importune moment.
Tensions have mounted in recent weeks following a spate of border skirmishes and a spike in separatist violence in Kashmir by Pakistan-based militant groups. The deterioration comes at a bad time for the region. India’s and Pakistan’s foreign ministers are both due to attend a meeting in London next week where leading Western powers will focus on a new plan for Afghanistan.
There is a larger message for Pakistan in general that even if this whole IPL ballyhoo is really a slap on its face, it is Islamabad which had it coming. The entirety of Pakistan is facing a huge turmoil because time and again the country’s top authorities have been fomenting trouble elsewhere. What do you eventually comes back to haunt you.
South African players were the ultimate sufferers of the heinous apartheid policy when the country practised it. Individual sportsmen felt miffed and cried why should they lose out for the fault of their country. Well, that’s the way the world works. We all pay a price to the foibles of where we belong. Pakistan cricketers have learnt this better lesson at the IPL 3 auctions.
Who will agree to host the cricketers from Pakistan if the country is also going to despatch terrorists for queening the pitch in a different manner. Pakistan cricketers have lost out because of machinations of their country. It’s not cricket, okay. But there is little to grumble about. |
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