Is Cricket Thicker Than Blood?: An Open Letter to the Nation

It's that time of the year again, with the bugle of cricket all in our ears. And this time it's the Asia Cup 2025 coming our way. And irrespective of the results of this tournament or whatever this facade may be, a larger question prevails: what is the need for such tournaments from India's perspective?  As the drum rolls on, the Asia Cup 2025 would come out, so would the 4+month anniversary of the Pahalgam terror attacks and their resultant action by the tri-services under the banner of Operation Sindoor. 

Illustration by The Geostrata

From a sociological perspective, why should cricket be opposed? The ancient Indian concept of "Shatrubodh" appears to provide an answer here, namely, understanding the true enemy. 

 This idea that it is a civilisational conflict in which a secular, peaceful and largely intellectual and cultural society India, is at loggerheads with the radically spoonfed Pakistani people who have grown too love and live without freedoms under the military boot, that at the drop of the hat can throw of the mask and facade of peaceful co-existence to vilify the Indian state as culture which due to their dimwits is seen in a unipolar manner as "The Hindu Society".

This triggers a further question: are we really over the two-nation theory and its jugular vein analogy? Of course, the enemy isn't, because those who will hug out cricket players on the field, share biryani with them, will neither open their mouths on their own state-sponsored terrorism nor will they look down upon us, albeit only in their hallucinating mind. 

This idea of uninterrupted dialogue with Pakistan must now envelop within itself the idea of sports and other avenues of cultural diplomacy. Added to it is the silence of the Pakistani civil society over the ghastly act of terror.  

Here, the underlying idea is to ask our society to consider whether they really need that cricket match. And all that talk about people-to-people connect happens only with those who are your equals, not those who are still living in their medieval worldview, which supplements their present sub-standard of education. 

SPORTS AS OUR COLLECTIVE IDENTITY 

Now coming to the sports firstly in the last 11 years of governance, the way the care for our sportspersons is clearly evident in the multi- sport infrastructure that India has developed with a budgetary allocation of INR 1,000 crore, sports education, centres of excellence, over 326 projects approved in the last financial year, is a report card for which we the citizenry must be mindful. The simple reason for that is that in sport lies collective joy.  

Vinesh Phogat's lost medal opportunity still pains us, Neeraj Chopra's heroics still bring us a smile, the horrors which Australia gave us on 19th November, 2023, it's payback in the following T20 World Cup victory, the chess heroics of India, and the comeback of form and then retirement of India's undisputed King Kohli, all have been sources of collective emotions for us.

And yet, lies diametrically opposite to our collective sorrows when 26 body bags came home, and so with them those broken bangles and rubbed off sindoor (vermillion). These collective events have their individuality for those who are in the moment, be it in trauma or joy, but a civilisation that is India draws itself out from these collective moments. 

The development of sporting centres of excellence and pushing for scouting talent from far and wide has been the idea that has decentralised sports, moving it away from traditional fiefdoms. And at the centre of this lies the love and borderline obsession with cricket. The country that gave birth to the god of cricket has, in recent years, shown its masterclass by being at the pinnacle of the sport. Having won 2 International Cricket Council (ICC) trophies in the past two years and aiming for two more by 2027, has been a real aspiration for both the players and the fans.

But amidst these aspirations, the thought that Cricket or any other sporting event has to precede National interest has to go away, and that begins with this very Asia Cup 2025 and the unholy match that would be played on the 14th of September between India and Pakistan.  Firstly, purely focusing on the economics, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has a bank balance as on date reaching up to Rs. 20,686 crore, with the Asian Cricket Council, the conducting body of the present tournament, being dependent on BCCI’s role to make this tournament happen.

So then the valid question is, if the BCCI is the holder of key decks and stakes, why is Pakistani cricket not being stifled beyond repair? And if that is a conscious decision we are not choosing to make, and yet engaging with Pakistan on the cricket pitch, isn't it we who are the ones making the doublespeak, because if water and blood can't flow together, surely cricket is neither oxygen nor our DNA. Our collective DNA is that of an Indian, who stands up to defend their homeland, encompassing sam-daam-dand-bhedh.

And secondly, on the other important aspect is that, would playing cricket with a state that is ideologically opposed to us and our existence, with even Pakistani cricket players engaging in the state rhetoric while seeking validation elsewhere, by showcasing to the world that India is playing with them, supersedes the boundaries of a win or loss in the match.

The Pakistani psyche is predisposed to consider that even playing the match, irrespective of its result, is a fact that India has moved on and forgotten Pahalgam, whereby the messaging of not playing becomes imperative. And what good it brings qualitatively to us is a question that administrative stakeholders must ponder upon in the coming days. 

There must not be any doubt in our minds that the Pakistani cricket team is any different from the state itself. Not only does its politics control the cricket, unlike India, where administration lies with former sportspersons, but these cricketers, both present and former, like to extend the ideals of their failed state on the field itself. 

From calling it a jihad (holy war) to a match between two nuclear-powered states, it's not just hyperbole; it's a reflection of the Pakistani psyche, to which we are playing by giving them a chance on the cricket field. We would make a monkey out of them on a field is a belief that is okay to have, but can cricket really precede any of these incidents that have taken place in the months before?

From making the world see the India Way on terrorism to using multilateral platforms to condemn terrorism, what we won on the battlefield would be given away through this one T-20 match lasting less than 3 hours. The idea that sports must be subservient to a nation's ideals is a thought that must get ingrained, like what the Israelis did post the massacre of their players at the Munich 1972 Olympics. Any form of validation of the Pakistani state or its ideals is a bane from which we must refrain.

The latest evidence of that stands to be the braggish statement of "Failed Marshal" Asim Munir, who goes on with the nuclear threats, and it's this very foolish and fake brazenness which even their cricketers, both current and former, Shahid Afridi, most prominent among them all, amplify. In fact, it's not a secret that one of their best players, Danish Kaneria, a spinner by trade craft and a Hindu by faith, was pushed out of the team and was tormented on his faith, though his performance spoke a lot more than he ever did about his tumultuous times with Pakistan cricket. 

A SILENT HOPE AND A HUMBLE PRAYER

Having seen the flop show this match provides in recent times, do we really need cricket with a spoilt brat next door to prove our might on the field? Today, cricket economics are India's forte, but what isn't our forte is our social messaging, our conflicting values, and our forgetfulness of collective civilizational trauma. Though this match won't stop, the force of nationalism must move to all spheres of society, and with that, a prayer that nationalism won't become the defence of the scoundrel, but rather would be a consistent badge of honour for the India that is Bharat.

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BY KAUSHAL SINGH

BY CENTRE FOR POLITICS AND LAW

TEAM GEOSTRATA

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