Cricketing Diplomacy Ram Prasad 30th March 2011

If there is one real battle which exceeds the M-in Law- & D-in Law then it should be the cricketing war between India & Pakistan, with both sides fighting till the very end for the iconic title of one-upmanship over cricket and cricket emerges winner in this entire seeming entertaining episode with its attendant melodramatic scenes and emotions. If the great battle of Ashes restores pedigree to cricket in its orthodox fashion of returning over the urn of Ashes, then its puerile form of entertainment rests with sub-continental rivalry established between India- Pakistan. The melodrama has been the corner stone of entertainment right from the days of A H Kardar and Mushtaq Ali who were incidentally two players who played for unpartitioned India against Services Team of Australia led by legendary Lindsay Hassette in the mid 1946. The entertainment quotient was never missing from both sides of the border, starting from the crafty medium pace of M J Gopalan to the fiery pace bowling of Fazal Mahmood to counterattacking batsmen ship of Vijay Hazare, cricketing folklore was established to connect the dots of emerging nations who had some un finished agenda even after partition, may be Kashmir! With two major wars fought immediately after the independence in 1948 and in 1965, Pakistan could not able to accept the reality of constitutionally and democratic stable India.

Then came the teaser of 1971 Bangladesh liberation and followed with Simla Agreement of 1972 ( proposed on the lines of Henry Kissinger/ Richard Nixon) the big brother India was magnanimous to not to alter the Line of Actual Control to pre 1947 status and even gifted the famous Karakoram Highway leading to Aksai Chin(a). Cricketing ties were at lowest ebb and no water had flown over the Indus River since cricket ties between two nations were non existent until the goodwill prevailed in the minds of mandarins of North Block under Morarji Desai and Atal Behari Vajpayee and first of the initiative of resuming a constructive dialogue started to roll on in the form of setting up of Consular General in Karachi and Bombay respectively during the brief interregnum of Janata Party rule in 1978. India toured Pakistan after a gap of 18 years ( 1960s was the last tour to be played between two countries) and India in its batting had opening the batting and bowling respectively. Gundappa Vishvanath and Sunil Gavaskar the brothers in law Surinder Amarnath and Mohinder Amarnath bros with the blessings of Lala Amaranath being the chief selector toured to Pakistan. Pakistan ably had Mushtaq and Sadiq Mohd brothers of the original little Master, legendary Hanif Mohd and with cousins Majid Khan and Imran Khan Bishen Bedi was humiliated and had his last laugh and was in vintages of retirement after his mauling by Imran Khan to romp Pakistan home. That series saw the emergence of greatest fast- medium swing bowler who could bowl on a dust bowl of pitches with his devilish attitude- KAPIL DEV IL , with Sadiq Mohd signaling the dressing room for the helmet, the sign of Indian fast bowler- strike bowler had EMERGED!! ( Ref: Idols by Sunny Gavaskar) India lost the series 2-0 and Pakistan was towing with US to dethrone the Afghan intervention of USSR in the autumn of 1979!!!! Pakistan had its own

share of tumultuous historical course labeled as failed state by the CIA and with military voice heard than the diplomats over Islamabad, Rawalpindi was calling shots even now. As a part of restoring gestures and diplomatic entourage began, and Prime Minister Morarji Desai was conferred Nishan-e- Pakistan, highest civilian award (equivalent of Indian Bharta Ratna) by military hawkish Gen. Zia-ul- Haq in 1987 and in return diplomacy, Rajiv Gandhi conferred Bharat Ratna to Frontier Gandhi Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan posthumously in 1988.

Gun& Bat Diplomacy1978- 1987 Suddenly cricketing diplomacy seemed to work its way out to find solutions which the military actions could not able to enforce. India& Pakistan jointly bided and hosted the Reliance World Cup 1987, first time outside the cordons of English Channel and cricket making waves with Gen. Zia- ulHaq visiting Indo-Pak match at Jaipur and to counter the Indian belligerence designed by (another officer & gentleman from this side of border ) General Krishnawamy Sundarji in countering and nuking Pakistans KRL or Kahuta Research Laborotories of Lahore in his famous Operation Brasstacks of 1987. The heat waves of Rajasthan nor the guile of Pakistani pacers could cool off, such was the temperature of high voltage and entertaining drama witnessed n the cauldrons of power in Rawalpindi and South Block, New Delhi. If guns were firing at borders then there was one yogi who was doing his karma, with unclenched attitude in dust bowls of mining pitches of Chinnaswamy Stadium and that was none other than Sunny Gavaskar, what ought to have been an 35 th Century in

the annals of the game, was stopped by the horrendous appeals of Pakistani close- in fielders with NO UDRS or referrals, it was the sole discretions of V K Ramaswamy, leaving India lose by 16 runs coinciding with Imran vision for 1987s agenda of Winning India in India and England in England and WC 1987, the first two materialized and final aspiration did not take off albeit in 1987, but in 1992 WC, holding aloft the B& H Trophy and culminating in Shaukat Khannon Hospital.. Finally, both India & Pakistan meandered their ways to the changing global scenario and stopped short of jingoism and creating a ambience for Track 2 diplomacy to move away from the sheen of media glare, political cynics. India lost its way in the semi finals of 1987 to Goochs sweeps and he swept to a convincing English victory and Mc Dermott stopped the Pakistani cavalry marching by halting 17 runs before winning and victory, and Aussies winning the All- Anglo Saxon finale of 1987 and lifting the cup to Southern Cross. Unstable India & Unpredictable Pakistan- 1990s The early 1990s saw the change of guard in India after the elections of November 1989 paving to the left-centre Janata Dal headed by Visvanath Pratap Singh or Raja of Manda entering to feverish battle with the Daughter of East Ms Benazir Bhutto pitching for 1000 years of war on Kashmir and a equal rebuttal by kshatriya Raja, VP Singh to face the Indian army for a protracted 1000 hours were the comedy of errors formed the part of rhetoric unleashed from both sides. The time also saw the emergence of little master genius in Tendulkar who made his debut as a school boy whizkid in the maidans of Faislabad in the murky winter of1989 and taking

Abdul Quadir & Co to shed his piece of ego and reincarnate the game of Cricket and as the clich goes, rest is history..

1990s Sharajah ShariatCricket was at lowest ebb between two neighbors with Sharajah hosting the infamous CBFS ( Cricket Benevolent Fund Series can be rechristened as Cricket Betting Funding Series) were almost all the series between India vs Pakistan were designed by the syndicates operating from the seven emirate sheikhdoms and cricket lost its- INNOCENCE the less said is better. 1992 B& H WC This was supposed to be match watched with more fanfare and India took Pakistan in the World Cup for the first time in Sydney and it was March 6, 1992, and India bulwark of establishment countering the Imrans supremacy in a neutral venue and India ramped home to win by 39 runs. the exploits of the young boyish Tendulkar and Kapil Devils 6r over wide-ish square point or sweeper cover is regal memorabilia for cricketing cynosures like me.

1996 PIL COM ITC WC If 1992 WC cricket was avatar for professional of pyjama cricket where cricket was played and watched during the dinner time, with colored clothing and merchandise, 1996 was the huge money spinner in terms of sponsorship rights and who can doubt the Marwari brains of Jagmohan Dalmia in globalizing the cricket and non-descript cricketing teams like UAE/ Kenya took part and to the amazing swashbuckling batting of Sanath Jayasurya and Rumesh Kaluwitharana, who withered every bowling attack under the sun to bag the trophy from the daughter of the East, Benazir Bhutto and as

usual Ranatunga walked way with his prompt walking adore his cup board with ITC trophy.

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Though the final was almost expected as the entire Sri Lankan unit were doing admirably well , the match of the tournament was the match witnessed between (even Gods were standing in the heaven ) sub continental rivals, IndoPak, the QF @ Chinnaswamy Stadium, the date was a stable Saturday, March 9, 1996, and India due to the exemplary batting display by Tendulkar/ Sidhu/ and who can forget the un imaginable Jadejas 46 runs of 24 balls cantering India home to another 39 run victory. As they say discretion is better than valor or discretion is better part of valor, Amar Sohail certainly would have learned his lessons of playing indiscrete/ rush of blood shot and quickly Venkatesh Prasad showing the way to Amir s pavilion, Indian emergence to Pakistani mind games were put to an halt, as this generation of Face book goers are un interested in the pedigree of their grandfathers with empowerment and independent thinking becoming the thinking hats of Argumentative Indians!

1999 Bus Diplomacy- Road to Lahore via Rawalpindi Cricketing ties resumed in winter of 1998-99 and Chennai hosting the first of the two test match series of Friendship Series and Pakistan won the match at Chennai and leading to some of the finest sports appreciation of century with Chepauk Chennai, admirably executing a exhalting beheviour to the guests which is to remembered in the annals of the history of the game. 1999 also significantly marked the de-tour in Indian thinking and paving way forward to engage Pakistan in all its assemblage in the form of- trade, cultural, literature, business apart from diplomacy. But the road envisioned by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to foster a warm

relations even after 50 years of Partition could not stand the visceral approval of generals from Pindi HQ, where the hawks drove the doves and this time it was the misadventure of Gen. Musharaff in Kargil in June 1999. Operation Vijay was won over by Gen VP Malick what was supposed to be high costly pyrrhic victory for Indians . During this time of war-mongering doing rounds with heavy sound- bites from none too shy George Fernandes in the foot hills of Tiger Hills, India was taking Pakistan at Birmingham, England in 1999 Word Cup and with Venkatesh Prasad encrypting a 5-28 settling the scores for Indias favor, India sailed home to beat Pakistan by 40 odd runs. This victory was a morale booster for the security forces stationed in Tiger Hills leading to retracting to original spots by Pakistani Army at the behest of hotlines established by President Clinton. The morale of the story is - road to Islamabad goes via Washington.

2003 WC The high voltage of 2003 episode was the clash of Shoaib Akthars toe crushing Yorkers to smothering upper cuts by Sehwags andTendulkar mince meating Pakistan to all to comfortable victory with Tendulkar falling short by 2 runs and once again exhibiting his selfless character to show that he is karma yogi backed with strithaprajna lakshana, steadied thinking or undistracted thinking by thinking cluttering, essaying the footsteps of Sri Krsna to Arjuna in the famous Bagwad Gita (Certainly lots of parallel can be drawn, and that a separate lecture can be set for it)

2007 WC 2007 WC was a fiasco by word cup standards and both India and Pakistan getting an exit route or rout early and India

losing to Bangladesh and Pakistan losing to Ireland, leading to unglamorous WC with Mandira Bedi anchoring the show!!!

2011 WC Now with 2011 WC catapulted at Mohali, Chandigarh, and with more water has flown over Indus with last year Pakistan also facing huge deluge in Indus over flowing and India yet to come to terms with Mumbai fiasco of 26/11, still lots of lost ground needs to be met apart from cricketing histronics. Though cricket may be the eventual winner in this histrionics, I want India to come up to terms of Pakistan not only in cricketing terms but also in other forms of constructive engagement- in developing a Asian Free Trade Zone- renewing of Most Favored Nations ( both nations are running with higher trust deficits in business also, apart from politics) and creating of single window markets like ASEAN or European Union towards better camaraderie and improve the rankings in HDI Human Development Index- CPICorrpution Perception Index and by thinking forward and moving ahead of times and restoring the pride of Indus Valley Civilization from trust deficit to responsibility agenda setting by creating South Asia a prosperous and tension less region.