Skip to main content

Pakistani Cricketers Anguish Over Kashmir, Or Their Inability To Play In IPL?


Pakistan banned in IPL

From the colonial times, cricket and politics remained an inseparable thing in the Indian subcontinent. Ashutosh Gowariker’s "Lagaan" gives a hint of when did they began mixing together. But the whole episode of Bhuvan’s struggle of not paying the lagaan(taxes) to the British government —at times of monsoon crisis (ghanan ghanan)— becomes small and insignificant, if politics over cricket between India and Pakistan is taken into account in the past few years.

Just a few days before the commencement of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018, Pakistani cricketers began to shower their ‘alleged’ love and sympathy for Kashmir, now when they know couldn't take part in IPL, they are showcasing their outrage on Twitter —not against IPL— but against Indian army and India as a state.

After the 2008 Mumbai attacks, perpetrated by Pakistan based terror organization 'Lashkar-e-Taiba', the Indian government has put a ban on Pakistani players from participating in IPL, and also severed cricketing ties with Pakistan. The only tournament in which India and Pakistan play cricket is World Cup and Champions Trophy. There were discussions in India even to boycott Champions Trophy. But the conclusion was “why should cricketers and cricket-lovers in India suffer from the actions of the guerrilla army of a rogue state?”

During its inaugural 2008 season, there were 11 Pakistani players inducted in the IPL. However, after buying Pakistani players for a hefty price, the franchise owners had to bear a loss with the ban on Pakistani players post 26/11. Therefore, in 2010, despite being included in the IPL auction, no Pakistani players were selected to play in the league as none of them showed their interest towards them, the prime reason was their insecurity. And after all, there is very little to lose for IPL in barring Pakistani players with the presence of enough world class players who make it exciting.

It began with Afridi’s tweet in which he raised his concern about the situation in the ‘Indian Occupied” Kashmir. Using the word innocent for the Kashmiri militants, who were killed in the valley last week on Sunday in a security operation by Indian armed forces. He also questioned where UN and other international agencies have been and why are they silent, which itself is ironical when UN which reportedly has listed 139 Pakistanis in its list of Terrorist, Afridi is appealing to the UN. It’s like a thief reporting a complaint to the cops.
The response to this tweet was enormous. It was possibly the first time when an active Pakistani cricketer officially chose to be involved in the Indo-Pak politics supporting the terrorist groups working in Kashmir brazenly. Afridi, in spite of hailing from Pakistan, which is also synonymously known as a terrorist state, the all-rounder cricketer, has been able to earn respect in the international cricket. His engagement in the never-ending, sometimes petty, Indo-Pak politics signifies his will to begin a political career in Pakistan, now that he will have to retire from Cricket.

IPL is a fast money generating event for cricketers all over the world. Afridi was sold for an approximate worth of 4.5 Crore of Rupees ($ 675,000) in the first season of IPL. So, his grudge is real & justified.

Among cricketers, Gautam Gambhir’s response was the first and impactful. According to him, what started on Twitter should also end on Twitter.
There were many other cricketers who responded to Afridi’s tweet.

Captain Virat Kohli, unlike his performance on the ground, chose to be politically correct. His response was ambiguous. "As an Indian, you want to express what is best for your nation and my interests are always for the benefit of our nation. If anything opposes it, I would never support it for sure. But having said that, it's a very personal choice for someone to comment on certain issues. Unless I have total knowledge of the issues and the intricacies of it I don't engage in it but definitely, your priority stays with your nation", he said to ANI.


But among all, World Cup-fame former captain Kapil Dev’s response was the most appropriate when he wondered why Afridi was even receiving importance. "Who is he? Why are we giving importance to him? We should not be giving importance to certain people.” I would rate his response a 5-star.

Shoaib Akhtar, who with India’s help, makes good money by pursuing cricket commentary, looks confused. First, he tweeted about the trending Salman Khan case but deleted that later. In his first tweet, he hilariously compared an Indian state of Kashmir with Salman Khan and some of the most troubled regions of the world like Yemen, Afghanistan, and Syria.“Kashmir, wants it to be 'free' like with some of Later, he moderated his stand in his next tweets. The deleted first tweet was only to grab attention.
At last, Pakistani cricketers have only ridiculed themselves. If they want to play IPL or international cricket with India, they should first make their army & ISI people realize that they would not be getting anything with the jihadist militants they create for Kashmir. Doing theatrics on Twitter is no solution and will only serve the purpose of entertaining followers. Also, as long as India plays a role in bringing riches and glory to the Pakistanis —actors, singers, cricketers— they do not feel the need of talking about the so-called uprising in Kashmir. The grumble begins if the perks coming from India is stopped.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Marvels Of Board Exams

AFTER AN EXHILARATING HOLI, comes the boring and haunting board exam, the exam for which no amount of preparation gives an impression of sufficiency. Students across the nation get excited as well as depressed. They are ‘excitingly depressed’. Excited to give the final exam of their school life, to enter into a new world, and depressed thinking what society would say if their marks won't be that good. Sharma Ji’s meritorious child is making things worse. While the level of questions asked in the exams has become easy these days, the quality of students being produced is decreasing, WhatsApp, Social Media and expansion of internet are to blame. The internet and smartphones may help students in their higher studies, but it misfires in case of younger kids. It only serves as a distraction, the biggest of modern times. Earlier, when kids go out to play some sports , it was treated as a distraction from studies. But now, it has been understood clearly that it wasn't seeing...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Great Indian Bank Fraud - A Look Into PNB SCAM

India’s second largest bank, PNB, has been duped with a massive amount of 11400 cr by a billionaire jewellery designer Nirav Modi, now a fugitive. Before being named and investigated in the mega- bank-fraud, the celebrity designer has been featured in Forbes India's Richest People List 2016. Not to mention, Mr Modi has been seen in the World Economic Forum summit at Davos with PM Modi himself. It explains his network. There must be multiple levels of corruption involved in Nirav Modi scam — from the highest management in the bank to bureaucracy, all must have colluded together to make this scam come true. Netas, too, are part of big businessman-banker nexus as they are the ones who fund the election campaign secretly. To reiterate, political parties fundings still do not come under the scanner of RTI. Indian Banking Exposed PNB, in a statement, said that fraudulent transactions took place in one of its branches in Mumbai with their apparent connivance. A single br...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Triple Talaq Argument: Fundamental Rights And Religious Obligations

The religious orthodoxy versus gender justice debate is not new. The debate has been ignited in the past from time to time challenging the sanctity of personal laws. The Muslim Personal Law Application Act, 1937, allows Indian Muslims to be governed by the  Shariat  (Islamic laws) based on Quran and  Hadith  (utterances of the Prophet) in matters of personal law. It is the Shayara Bano case that once again has ignited the debate. Shayara is a resident of Kashipur in Uttarakhand who was given an instantaneous triple talaq by her husband. She then approached the Supreme Court and filed a petition against practices of talaq-e-bidat (instantaneous triple talaq), nikah halala and polygamy. There are many progressive Muslim groups along with some secular bodies which demand to reform the unjust personal laws of the Muslim community. However, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) opposes any interference by the Supreme Court in matters of religious an...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Bihar B Ed Admission Crisis

This year in 2018, a first-ever centralized test was conducted by the Nalanda Open University (NOU), on behalf of the Bihar government for admission into 322 B.Ed colleges across the state. Prescribed by the previous governor of Bihar, Satyapal Malik, as it was publicized in the media, the combined entrance test (CET) was done in order to tame the B.Ed colleges which have been reduced to mere money-making business; some of them being run by powerful people in politics too. They charge more than the prescribed money for admission and yet, they churn out incompetent teachers. The Crisis After conducting the test and announcing result of the same, NOU held counselling of the CET candidates to allot appropriate colleges to them according to their marks. In the result, around 62000 candidates were declared as qualified, and 36440 among them were invited for the counselling held in Gyan Bhawan, Patna. The counselling was merely for document verification and submission. The c...
1 comment
Read more

India China relations — The significance of Modi-Xi Meet

On April 28, 2018, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Wuhan were seen walking together along a sidewalk on the shores of the enchanting East Lake, a large freshwater lake in Wuhan city, also the largest urban lake in China. And this “relaxed and friendly”, in a bright and sunny atmosphere, meeting between the two leaders was publicized as an “Informal Summit”. According to the government, Mr Modi and Mr Xi exchanged their views on major issues of bilateral and global importance and that they shared the view that, in the middle of current global uncertainties, peaceful, stable and balanced relations between India and China will be beneficial for the world. Even Pakistan. Productive discussions over tea. Strong India-China friendship is beneficial for the people of our nations and the entire world. pic.twitter.com/ZBPiVu7a5A — Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 28, 2018 They later enjoyed freshly prepared Chinese tea, and had a boat r...
Post a Comment
Read more

Why India Cannot Sign Non-Proliferation Treaty

Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT is an international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons or its technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament. The biggest incentive of NPT, due to which a large number of countries have signed it, is the agreement that the nuclear countries would share "peaceful nuclear technology" with the non-nuclear countries so that they can be able to produce nuclear energy domestically and use nuclear material for other peaceful purposes. This treaty was formalised in 1968 and those states that have detonated nuclear weapon before that were recognised as nuclear weapon state. As only five countries at that time have formally detonated their nuclear weapon successfully, this treaty recognizes these five countries - United States, Soviet Union (Russia), France, United Kingdom and China - as nuclear power. India conducted its first...
Post a Comment
Read more

Indian Rupee Demonetisation: Why It Cannot End Corruption Or Even Black Money

It was November 8, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a dramatic announcement, decided to scrap or demonetise two high-value Indian currency of the denomination of ₹500 and ₹1000. It means 85% of currency in circulation will no longer be a legal tender. All that precious notes have been converted into wastepaper overnight. It became the biggest talking point in every Indian household  —  from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and from Kutch to Arunachal Pradesh. After all, in a country where 98% of all transactions are conducted in cash, it was a big jolt. Demonetisation is usually associated with degrading economies and hyperinflation and often done by military dictatorships. It was surprising that a popular and democratically elected prime minister of a booming economy has resorted to demonetisation. Black money is the money held by people that have evaded taxation. It is illegal hoarding of unaccounted money which tends to exacerbate inequality because the biggest evas...
Post a Comment
Read more