The appeal of the “Stop War, Start Tennis” initiative will soon wear off
I was there when a minor deluge of people came from the other side into Punjab’s parts bordering Pakistan, right up to Chandigarh, with the Pakistani cricket team that came to play a Test series in 2005. Everyone said Punjabiyat, as a culture, had proved to be a bigger binding force than the divisiveness of politics. Before that, I was transfixed as the Indian team went to the other side the year before to — as Prime Minister Vajpayee put it with his usual eloquence — win not only matches but also hearts. The team won both. A large contingent of non-cricketers accompanied the team, including many journalists sponsored by corporate houses, to roam the lanes of Karachi and Lahore. Young Pakistani girls sang naughty little songs to tickle Indian players (Balaji zara dheere chalo, for instance). It was like a big wave of medicines had started to mend the wounds caused by the Partition and decades of communal tension.
Three years later, Mumbai was host to the most brazen terrorist attack this country has seen. From the other side! So forgive me I am sceptical of the latest wound-mending mission of Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and their cute little slogan — Stop War, Start Tennis — which they were on their sleeve. Well, not exactly the sleeve, but the warm-up jackets, nevertheless!
Bopanna and Qureshi, who are both 30, hail from India and Pakistan, respectively. Other than being doubles partners, they are good friends. They have known each other since they were both 16. They have been playing together off and on for seven years now. Qureshi, like every Pakistani, has roots in the undivided India. His maternal grandfather was India’s number one tennis player before the country’s division.
For now, having reached their first grand slam final at the US Open, they are both capitalising on the New York media’s thirst for an exotic story. They duo calls itself — none too subtly — the Indo-Pak Express. They want to play a symbolic match at Wagah, the only overland crossing point on the India-Pakistan border, with half of the court this side and the other half on the other side.
However, they need to understand that exoticism is not an enduring attraction. It is an appeal that dies, understandably, with growing familiarity. Bopanna and Qureshi can bask in the glow of their good showing at the US Open. They are getting attention now because it caps a good year for them. They won their first ATP title at the South African Open this year. Success begets fame and fame gives you the platform to promote global peace and other worthy causes. But, given that they are not quite in the full bloom of youth (that will be the early twenties for tennis players), there may not be too many peaks in the future.
As far as the India-Pakistan enmity is concerned, it will not vanish because their ambassadors sat together in the stands, watched a tennis match and clapped for the same side.