Cricket -- a catalyst in improving the South Asian political climate!

The current Indo-Pakistan exciting cricket series, being played after long 15 years on Pakistan soil, has not come merely as an sporting event but has been characterised as culmination of a complex and long-drawn political process. South Asians are crazy for cricket as seen from the fact that three of the regional countries -- Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka -- have reached the zenith of the game by capturing world cup while Bangladesh is also struggling and slowly improving in this discipline. Even Nepal, not a cricket playing nation as such, is turning towards it and took part in the recent under-19 world cup in Bangladesh. True, cricket was earlier seen in our region as a game not much associated with the common people as much as football but things have significantly changed over the last few decades. Cricket has become a passion in South Asia and it was only a normal spectacle when millions in Bangladesh remained glued to the television sets for the Karachi one-dayer till the last ball was bowled amidst suspense and thrill of unbeliveable proportion. The love for the game is now a binding factor for the countries of the area whose ties are often marred and bedevilled by various bilateral issues -- not between two major neighbours India and Pakistan alone but involving others as well.

When present Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was an opposition leader after a stint as external affairs minister many years ago, he took credit in Parliament by claiming that India-Pakistan cricket series in both the countries was the result of the foreign policy pursued by the then Janata government of which he was an important member. His critics had hardly any answer to the contention because the political climate in the South Asian region was one of the best during the Janata Party's government in India despite the fact that inherent mistrust and misconception did exist to a large extent. However, recent years with Vajpayee at the helm of the government saw a bad state of the bilateral ties marked by ups and downs. That, however, is characteristic of their relations but what was alarming was that the two sides more than once had reached a situation of being on the brink of war. Fortunately, that did not finally turn into a full blown conflict, thanks to the wisdom of saner sections of the people in both the countries and pressures of the peace-loving international community.

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As the contending parties rolled back from near-war situation, the overall ambience improved but not to the extent of being enmity-free to holding the Seven-nation south Asian summit. Anyway, summits did take place in Nepal and of late in Islamabad only after the bottlenecks were cleared through painstaking process. The 12th and last SAARC summit in Pakistan was possible only after a degree of improvement in the New Delhi-Islamabad ties. But what was no less important is the much needed contacts between top leaders of two countries which occurred on the sidelines of the summit facilitating improvement of bilateral ties. The Indo-Pak cricket feast in Pakistan is the outcome of a largely successful bilateral discussion that followed the Vajpayee-Musharraf contact in Islamabad. Sadly, the visit of the Indian team appeared to hang in the balance even after improvement of relations because of the stance of the hawks in India and also in Pakistan. But the strong attitude of the top leadership helped clear the uncertainty which ultimately gladdened millions not only in the region but cricket lovers across the world.

South Asia remains an international flash point because of tensions stemming from two nuclear-armed neighbours. Their bilateral disputes are sensitive and somewhat intractable in nature even though the present day world is witnessing settlement of many a too complex problem. Needless to say that "Kashmir" is the main bone of contention where two sides have adopted diametrically opposite positions. But normal relations encompassing manifold cooperation mostly characterise their ties. It is not to suggest that the problems do not exist during reasonably good state of the relationship. But the problems must not stand as an impediment to normal ties between sovereign nations whereas disputes among countries particularly neighbours are not uncommon. Links in different fields like sports and culture can help improve relations greatly. Even persons otherwise hostile to a country may get carried away by the euphoria caused by such links.

I had the opportunity of watching cricket tests between India and Pakistan in the Indian capital way back in the 1982-83 when the New Delhi-Islamabad ties were not at their best. But there was no dearth of cheers for the Pakistani team in the Feroz Shah Kotla ground as Asif Iqbal or Majid Jehangir Khan received no less ovation than Kapil Dev, Dilip Vengsarkar or Syed Kirmani. Barring a handful of the zealots whose attitude is governed by rabid political considerations devoid of sporting spirit, sports or cultural events are welcomed by people transcending national boundaries and only a few lag behind in extending kudos to the deserving regardless of their national identities. The Karachi match -- first of the scheduled matches between India and Pakistan in the latter's soil after 15 years was no exception. This is something noteworthy and should come as greatly positive for the South Asians. We in Bangladesh not being directly a party in the series are also in great cricket mood surrounding the two high class teams. And this is the general expectation from people of the region.

At the moment none is talking about tensions and belligerence along their borders or clashes in the international conferences over "Kashmir". Those problems have not evaporated but have taken a back seat. Now the talks centre around Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Zaheer Khan and others on one side and Inzamam, Shaoib Akthar or Yusuf Youhana on the other. Not millions but crores in the region and elsewhere are enjoying the matches. The series has come at a right time in the sense that the SAARC needed a further boost following a successful summit in Pakistan. It will be, of course, a height of folly to expect that such sporting extravaganza in the true sense will resolve the political problems in the region and more so between two traditionally hostile nations, but this can definitely and vastly improve the climate that may help settle the problems or minimize tensions in the future. We all must keep this spirit up not only for the sake of sports but also to fulfil the aspirations of the peoples of the region. Slackening in this avowed goal on part of the leaders and policy makers would amount to betrayal of peoples' hopes and zeal.

Zaglul A. Chowdhury is a senior journalist.