Ganguly bats for India-Pakistan clash at Asia Cup: How ‘sportsmanship’ became a shield for cowardice in the game that shouldn’t be played
For Sourav Ganguly, the meaning of “returning the favour” is to take off his shirt and wave it around in celebration. This was his response to a question on his iconic shit-waving in 2002. “Flintoff had taken off his shirt in Mumbai. I just returned the favour, with interest!,” Ganguly said during a media interaction in 2010. On the flipside, this is what is at stake for the Indian Forces when they prepare to return the favour. Operation Sindoor targeted 9 terrorist headquarters in Pakistan in response to the deadly Pahalgam terror attack sponsored by Pakistan where at least 26 innocents – majority of whom were Hindus – were murdered point blank. Mind you, their trigger is not a shirt-wave.
Today, Ganguly supports BCCI’s decision for India to play Pakistan in the Asia Cup on September 14. “I am okay. The sport must go on. At the same time Pahalgam should not happen, but the sport must go on. Terrorism must not happen; it needs to be stopped. India took a strong stance towards terrorism… Sport needs to be played,”.
No Mr. Ganguly, sports does not “need to be played”. You don’t die if you don’t play bat ball. You might die if you play with Pakistan though for you never know when they might explode if that means taking down the Men in Blue with them, if you know what I mean. But what do you care about such a country, such a people. After all, you NEED it. Surely, there are many who must be protruding to Ganguly’s token disapproval of Pahalgam terror attacks and terrorism at large. Even this tokenism of a statement from Ganguly seemed laborious when compared to his famous shirt-wave.
Will national integrity pay the price for sportsmanship?
The embarrassing lack of national pride amongst those batting for cricket with Pakistan, including the BCCI, shows how the significance of cricket in India has been forgotten. But then, what can you really say about a game that decades of gambling have turned into a spectacle? Cricket was India’s response to its former colonisers in their own language. Cricket is how we asserted the Indian identity and reclaimed our dignity. It was not about sportsmanship.
It was about showing the English that we are better than them at their own game and can beat them black and blue at their own game without touching them. It was a healing process against 200 years of slavery, slaughter and economic and cultural occupation. It was showing the world what it means to be Indian. That was a different time that warranted a time-relevant and situation-specific approach. Today, the tables have turned. The expectation of a growing India is that we are not puppets with strings attached to the interests of the West. The expectation is that India matters, its neighbourhood matters and more so if foreign institutions, including those that indulge in sports diplomacy, use the playing field for geopolitical posturing.
Moreover, a response serving in self-interest to Pakistan’s policy of terror is the bare minimum that all Indian institutions, government or not, can give to the nation. To overlook the murders sponsored by Pakistan on your own soil is not sportsmanship. To say that Operation Sindoor is still ongoing and play cricket or any other game for that matter with Pakistan is not sportsmanship. As the world’s largest democracy, to live in the fear of global isolation is not sportsmanship, it’s bending the knee.
When countries prioritized ‘principles’ over sports
When 11 Israeli athletes and coaches were kidnapped and killed by Palestinian terrorists in the 1972 Munich Olympic, Israel withdrew for the remainder of the games; after Russia was barred from several tournaments for its war with Ukraine in 2022, many Russian athletes withdrew their names from such games where they were being stripped of their national identity and being told to participate under neutral flags; 25 African nations withdrew from the 1976 Summer Olympics after New Zealand’s rugby team toured South Africa, which was seen as a support for a racist, apartheid regime.
The Kenyan foreign minister James Osogo famously said, “principles are more precious than medals”; Sweden withdrew from Euro 2024 Qualifier after Brussels Terror Attack after 2 Swedish nationals were shot dead by an Abdesalem Lassoued during a UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying match between Belgium and Sweden in October 2023 in Brussels. The Swedish players skipped the game out of respect for the victims. These withdrawals, boycotts in sports have happened because the above-mentioned countries know that they do not “NEED” to play sports for their country to survive. They have been clear about their identity, of their pride and practice their respective sovereign right to self-determination.
BCCI: Lacking sports diplomacy and an internal political mess
Then there’s also this argument that cricket is being politicised. Well, in the real world, that is what sports diplomacy is. It’s soft power. That’s how high the stakes are for any Indian player when they carry their national identity with them. And speaking of “politicisation of cricket”, what’s BCCI? Presidents may change, but Rajeev Shukla is the one constant in BCCI politics — a quota all by himself. Politicians and bureaucrats have historically dominated the BCCI. This very fact ends the politicisation argument being made by several voices on social media. Corruption has also been rampant in the BCCI. Cases of match fixing, conflict of interest and internal misconducts have made as many headlines as have the victories earned by the Indian cricket.
The BCCI has gone too far
But this time, when in the aftermath of Operation Sindoor we are seeing the Pakistan-China-U.S axis stroke each other’s egos, India is standing alone in its fight against Pakistan-sponsored terrorism and its many bids to cause internal security threat. Lashkar proxy, The Resistance Front has been designated as a terror organisation by the U.S but this does not take away the fact that a bailout package was awarded to Pakistan while India was still combating the terror state in Operation Sindoor. All of these circumstances warrant a strong, united, self-determining India; not one where institutions act on their own whims while the government looks the other way. This ‘to each their own’ attitude of India’s cricket body was displayed on the 26th Kargil Vijay Diwas no less.
On the 26th Kargil Vijay Diwas when the Chief of Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi sent out a warning to Pakistan reminding them of Operation Sindoor, the BCCI decided that India will play Pakistan in the Asia Cup in UAE on September 14. We surely live in two Indias.
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