Daily Times

When India and Pakistan meet on the cricket pitch it is anything but a game. The tension is palpable and taut, and there are no neutral observers. Okay, maybe the umpires. But that too, is a recent phenomenon. Remember Shakoor Rana? Along with Mike Gatting, most of India hated the Pakistani umpire.

When Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani comes to Mohali to witness the India-Pakistan World Cup semi-final on the invitation of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, he travels a path that two of his predecessors have trod. General Ziaul Haq came to Jaipur in 1987 to see a Pakistan-India match. He met Rajiv Gandhi in Delhi and visited his alma mater St Stephens. General Zia sought to use cricket as a diplomatic tool to appear to be building bridges with India, but relations between the two countries were cold and the military dictator had launched proxy wars against India in Punjab and Kashmir. The two countries did not go to war under General Zia but he was instrumental in causing just as much harm to India-Pakistan relations as did the 1971 war. Clearly, cricket did not build any bridges during Zia’s tenure. Realists did not expect it to.

General Musharraf was no less in grandstanding. The architect of the Kargil operation, he believed in making grand gestures and in the latter half of his tenure saw himself as the man who would deliver peace to India-Pakistan. Whether at the Agra Summit or when he got himself invited to watch a Pakistan final in 2005, General Musharraf played to the gallery and had the Indian media eating out of his hands. In 2005, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in parliament, “I am happy to inform the honourable members of the House that I have decided to invite President Musharraf to come to India to watch the cricket match between our two teams. It is my earnest desire that the people in our neighbouring countries and their leaders should feel free to visit us whenever they wish to do so. Be it to watch a cricket match; be it to do some shopping; or be it to meet friends and families. India is proud to be an open society and an open economy. I do hope that President Musharraf and his family will enjoy their visit to our country.” Dr Singh was sincere in his desire for peace and General Musharraf was ambitious. But peace still eluded the two neighbours.

Several cricket series have been played since 26/11, including the Indian Premier League (IPL). Relations between India and Pakistan are rocky at the best of times and this has an impact on players and viewers alike. On the field, the Pakistan XI and the Indian X1 know that losing in the final is not going to shame the team as much as losing to each other. The pressure from one’s own countrymen and from the opposing team makes the match at once exciting and scary. In such a tension-filled scenario, is it really a place to build bridges and to expect diplomacy to get a kickstart? The best diplomatic efforts are conducted behind closed doors and away from prying eyes. But some amount of posturing is part of the game. The diplomatic game. Not cricket.

Cricket, unfortunately, will suffer from this high profile presence. The ‘beautiful game’ (sorry football) will get overshadowed by the media jamboree that happens every time a meeting takes place between India-Pakistan heads of government. Prime Minister Gilani has said that the match provides the two countries “an opportunity to deliberate on issues of national importance”. It is probably obvious to most that a cricket stadium is for sports and bringing in high profile politics into it highly undesirable. Those wanting to quicken the pace of the peace process between the two countries see this as an opportunity for grand gestures and political propelling. Traditionally, bureaucracies in both countries are suspicious of such shoving. The hype that goes with the event will overshadow the real progress that the Interior Secretary level talks will make this week.

Mohali should have been about cricket. It should have been about cricket fans. It should have been about ordinary Pakistanis and ordinary Indians enjoying an extraordinary match. Now it will turn into a media circus. Attention will be diverted from the game to the body language of the two protagonists, the two prime ministers. It should have been on the 11 players from each side. Now the commentary will focus on whether Prime Minister Gilani applauded a Tendulkar sixer with as much enthusiasm as an Afridi wicket. Did Prime Minister Manmohan Singh smile at Harbhajan’s over or was he just thinking about the diplomatic googly?

At the end of the week, a diplomatic event would have taken place, which would not even be a speck on the diplomatic process of India-Pakistan relations. It would be an attention-getting event but nothing more. Some think that it reinforces India’s and its prime minister’s image as a liberal and peace loving nation, but that needs no reinforcement. Even in Pakistan there is little doubt that Dr Singh is perhaps the most committed in the Indian establishment to peace with Pakistan.

Cricket diplomacy at best is part of public diplomacy, or Track-2 as it is called in the subcontinent, shod of pomp and officialdom. It should be just an opportunity to share something that is common to the two nations, the mania of cricket.

The writer is Editor News, Asian News International (ANI). She can be reached at smitaprakash@aniin.com