Common misperceptions may have influenced the reaction to the exclusion of Pakistani cricketers in the auctions for players for the forthcoming edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 cricket tournament. While the IPL, which organises the tournament, the IPL teams and the government are engaged in a heated debate over who is at fault over the exclusion of Pakistani cricketers, it would be useful to draw attention to these misperceptions and dispel them outright. That might not end the IPL controversy, but at least will help gain a better understanding of why the controversy erupted in the manner it did.
The first misperception arises out of the mistaken belief that politics and sports should not be mixed. The fact of the matter is that the two cannot be delinked, even though sportspersons have often tried to free sports from the stranglehold of politics. Few Indians objected to the government’s decision to bar the Indian tennis team from playing South Africa in the finals of the Davis Cup in the 1970s. That was a rare opportunity for India to bring home the coveted Davis Cup. However, the Indian government’s decision to avoid all contacts with the South African government because of its policy of apartheid came in the way. There were some protests over the government’s decision, but the world understood India and its position.
Similarly, South African cricketers paid the price for their government’s apartheid policy. It was only after the South African government abandoned its apartheid policy that its cricket players could get the opportunity of playing in international tournaments. India, too, followed a similar policy on maintaining sporting contacts with Pakistan. For several years in the latter half of the last century, India and Pakistan had decided not to play cricket matches with each other. The matches resumed in the 1970s, but Indo-Pak cricketing ties have always been the casualty whenever political relations between the two neighbouring countries have soured.
Nobody quarrelled with that approach. So, why should anyone be worried if the IPL tournament’s player selection process has become a victim of political tensions between India and Pakistan? Politics does influence sports and the two cannot be delinked. Governments will always force sporting federations and their teams to act in one way or the other, if they realise that playing a tournament or not playing it has a bearing on their political equations with a difficult neighbour or a country that needs to be boycotted.
The important point here is whether the government’s stance on selection of Pakistani cricketers for the IPL tournament was in the country’s interest or not. Home Minister P Chidambaram has already clarified that the government had granted visas to all Pakistani cricketers and it had not sent out any advisory to the IPL franchisees on not choosing players from the neighbouring country. Whether the Indian government should have gone a step further to assure the IPL team owners that they or their matches would not be a problem even if they selected Pakistani cricketers is, of course, a point that can still be debated.
The reality is that most IPL franchisees may have thought twice over selecting Pakistani players, given the security concerns that the presence of cricketers from the neighbouring country in an IPL match would have raised. No IPL team owner would like to have taken that risk in view of the huge financial stakes involved. A categorical and public assurance from the government on security for Pakistani players in the IPL tournament would certainly have cleared the air. If the government is to be blamed, it should be for its failure to give a clear go-ahead on the question of Pakistani players in IPL teams. This was required particularly in view of the manner in which the same government had raised security concerns over the holding of the IPL matches in 2009 as the elections were also being held around the same time. This had forced IPL to hold its second tournament outside India.
From this stems the second misperception. Cricket is no longer just a game. It is now big business as well. No IPL team will take the risk of cancellation of its matches because of security issues if it senses that the presence of Pakistani players in its ranks might fuel such concerns. Crores of rupees are at stake. Why take a chance? Therefore, there is no need to blame the IPL franchisees for not bidding for Pakistani players. If the government felt that the franchisees’ refusal to pick Pakistani players might affect Indo-Pak relations, it should have taken the necessary steps. There is no point blaming them now.
