Dada swag

A frail young man ran in a half-circle across the fecund green in an attempt to catch a mishit by a South African batsman, and 90,000 people in the stands of Eden Gardens — lulled into half-sleep by the mellow November afternoon sun and the steady batting of Gary Kirsten and Daryl Cullinan — rose up, roaring like the Bay of Bengal on a stormy evening. The young man fumbled and fell, and dropped the catch in the process. “Too much gallery show,” said a wizened cricket lover sitting beside me on the concrete stairs. In 1996, Eden Gardens still did not have bucket seats.

The crowds at Eden Gardens are known to be fickle. They have booed Sunil Gavaskar and Rahul Dravid, they have cheered for South Africa and Sri Lanka in matches against India. There is something gladiatorial about those getting on to the pitch — the crowds are not going to go easy on you because you are Indian, nor fail to cheer for you because you are from the rival team. The match I described in the previous paragraph was the first of many I have watched at the stadium. The young fielder was Sourav Ganguly, who had just returned from England after scoring a century on his debut at Lords, and then another one in his next innings.

In the match against South Africa — the second in a three-Test series — Mr Ganguly scored 6 and 0 in the two innings. The only Indian batsman to come out with some pride was captain Mohammad Azharuddin, who scored a gritty century in the first innings, saving India the blushes of a follow-on. The surprise performance was that of Anil Kumble, who hit 88 in the first innings before getting run out. The star of the match, however, was South African opener Kirsten, who notched up 102 in the first innings and 133 in the second. On the fourth day of the match, when I was in the stands, he reached his century, soon followed by teammate Cullinan, who scored 153. On both occasions, the crowd that had cheered Mr Ganguly’s failed attempt also stood up to applaud the rival batsmen for their achievements. This was a lesson learnt: In sports as in life, grace is more important than futile aggression.

Currently, however, Eden Gardens is playing host to a rather graceless contest — between that frail young man, Mr Ganguly, who is now the president of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), and the Bengal unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Following the terror attack in Pulwama on 14 February, where 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel were killed, BJP workers in Kolkata have been demanding the removal of a picture of Imran Khan, former captain of the Pakistan cricket team and current prime minister. Khan’s picture — along with that of his compatriots Wasim Akram and Ramiz Raza — hangs in the club house at Eden Gardens, where very few people are allowed. A regular spectator, even when overwhelmed with feelings of outrage and jingoism, are unlikely to chance upon these and get offended.

Reporting on a demonstration of BJP workers in late-February, The Hindu has speculated that the current imbroglio over Khan’s picture was a sort of proxy war between the ruling party at the Centre and its rival, Trinamool Congress, in power in West Bengal. “Mr Ganguly was favoured by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee when he was selected to lead the CAB, four years ago,” said the report. Since there is no source cited for this, one might think of this as speculation. However, it is a little difficult to be unsympathetic to Mr Ganguly’s stance. And, those demanding such token gestures as the removal of cricketers’ pictures in lieu of a more serious engagement with foreign affairs and defence seem to be making futile gestures at gaining political mileage.

In fact, for many self-fashioned Twitter and TV studio nationalists, the current disturbances across the India-Pakistan borders seems to be only a little more serious than a cricket match. The call for “vengeance” and “teaching Pakistan a lesson”, the cheering and aggression, and blatant misreporting is somewhat similar to Roman crowds calling for the death of bloody gladiators. In the meanwhile, it seems India will have to play Pakistan in the World Cup match in June this year, else forfeit two points. The International Cricket Council has turned down the request of the Board of Control for Cricket in India to sever ties with nations such as Pakistan that allegedly harbour terror. Incidentally, India has won all six times it faced Pakistan in a World Cup match, including the one in 1992, when Mr Khan led his team win in the tournament. So, our chances this summer look good.

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