Love, hate & money, the India-Pak story

Rohit Mahajan

THE joyous hugs that Shoaib Akhtar and Harbhajan Singh, Shahid Afridi and Ravi Shastri, Gautam Gambhir and Wasim Akram bestowed upon each other recently in Qatar are a great argument for regular people-to-people interactions between Indians and Pakistanis. Some of them (Gambhir, Afridi) have uttered terrible words about each other in the past; some carry in their minds horrible ideas of a bloody conquest of India, as Akhtar has enunciated in some detail, quoting scripture. But when the former players from the two countries met in Qatar, there was what appeared to be genuine affection among them, with a bit of nostalgia about times when they were young and in their prime and made great memories on the field.

But India won’t tour Pakistan for the Asia Cup, it’s almost certain, though Sports Minister Anurag Thakur has said that first the Indian board (BCCI) needs to decide about the team’s participation. “Then only the Sports Ministry and Home Ministry will decide,” he said. The Ministry of Home Affairs’ answer is certain to be a big no, and with good reason: Pakistan is being regularly struck by murderous attacks by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) — the ‘Bad Taliban’, as opposed to the ‘Good Taliban’ the country uses as part of its foreign policy.

The attacks have become intense in the last few months, and experts believe TTP have been strengthened by the Afghan Taliban taking power in Kabul in August 2021. Pakistan organised the Pakistan Super League recently in four cities — Multan, Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi — and the players were provided top-level security. A day after a TTP attack on a Karachi police station, PCB chairman Najam Sethi tweeted to confirm that the tournament was safe: “The TTP have said they will only target state security establishment because various ‘deals’ have broken down. There is no threat to PSL. It will go on.”

Not a confidence-booster of the best kind, and Sethi deleted the post. The tournament did turn out to be well-secured, though the TTP attacks and encounters have gone on unabated.

Pakistan had threatened a boycott of this year’s 50-overs World Cup in India if India did not send its team for the Asia Cup. However, now it seems Sethi is reconciled to India not touring Pakistan and the need to move the tournament elsewhere — Sethi knows without India, the Asia Cup revenues would shrink to a fraction. Money rules.

Gambhir and Afridi

In bygone times, brute force was the most decisive factor that governed relationships between nations and people; but now, with intellect accorded supreme status, and physical strength relegated to circuses or sports fields, liquid capital is decisive in relations between people and countries.

So we come to the relations between Gambhir and Afridi. To put it bluntly, they’ve been haters. In 2007, they collided on the cricket field, and Afridi described this encounter thus: “I remember the run-in with Gambhir during the 2007 Asia Cup (actually, it was the Asia Cup but a bilateral series ODI in Kanpur) when he completed his single while running straight into me. The umpires had to finish it off or I would have.” Afridi is implying that he would have got into a physical fight with Gambhir.

Then Afridi added some less than friendly words in his book: “Oh, poor Gautam. He and his attitude problem. He who has no personality. He who is barely a character in the great scheme of cricket. He who has no great records, just a lot of attitude. Gambhir behaves like he’s a cross between Don Bradman and James Bond. In Karachi, we call guys like him saryal (surly person).”

Gambhir reacted on Twitter, suggesting Afridi had mental problems. “Anyway, we are still granting visas to Pakistanis for medical tourism. I will personally take you to a psychiatrist.” Afridi answered in the same childish manner: “I think Gautam Gambhir may have some problems. I am working with hospitals and I can get him very good treatment here... I will get a visa arranged so that his treatment can be done here.”

It can’t be argued that the two were young, excitable teens then — Gambhir was 37 then, already a member of the BJP and soon to be elected an MP; Afridi was officially 42 but likely 45-plus. These, then, are the kind of heroes crores of sports fans adore — no intellectual giants by any stretch of imagination.

You’d imagine that men with such rancour between them, and such immature and schoolyard-type attitude, would come to blows when they next meet; but perhaps the two have had a sudden, late spurt of mental growth, or perhaps it’s the money on offer, but they did not bite each other when they played in the Legends League Cricket Masters, a T20 tournament for retired players, in Qatar recently.

Talking about Gambhir, Afridi said: “We are both ambassadors of our respective countries. If you live in the past, you won’t be able to live. We are enjoying in our present... I have spent two to three days with him and it has been amazing.” Indeed. Things have come to pretty pass when Afridi, a bit of a loose cannon, begins to speak like a statesman.

Afridi’s team won the tournament, while Gambhir was in fine form — good for a retired player who’s been an MP for nearly four years. His playing in the tournament — as captain of an all-Indian team that included men such as Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan and Suresh Raina — against an ‘Asian’ team, which included seven Pakistani players, does raise interesting questions about Gambhir. The MP from Delhi has regularly argued that the Indian cricket team must not play against the Pakistani team anywhere — even in ICC tournaments such as the World Cup. Is it not hypocritical of him, then, to play in a T20 tournament against a team led by a Pakistan and comprising several Pakistani players? Especially since he’s a particularly intense nationalist and should be doing what he preaches? Then again, money matters.

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