Yeah that is what IPL is all about at this moment. Its all about the games...political games that has and will keep both the countries involved in a strange kind of love-hate relationship. One day its "Hath milaao,Galey lagaao", the next day its "Jaan lo ya Jaan Bachaao". The so called political representatives are so hungry for an opportunity to showcase their jingoism that they outrageously pick up a wrong cause and make it a cross-border issue of significant implications. By the way,you have to give it to them. They are a talented lot though or else how can one explain their magnificent strike rate at turning a non-issue into an ISSUE. They know how to make a mountain out of a mole hill and ordinary citizens only know how to climb up that mountain and commit suicide.Ofcourse, the politicians are ably aided by media who derive sickening pleasure from igniting fire and then enjoying the warmth of the same without bothering about the resultant fire that burns down everything around them.
Any man in his senses would understand the reason behind the fate of Pakistani players in the IPL auction.As far as I understand, the obvious reasons could be:
- the unprdictability surrounding the presence of these players for the length of the tournament given the volatile nature of relationship between the countries.While Wasim Akram can be roped in as a support staff without much risk,the players come along with a great financial and as well as strategic risk from cricketing point of view.
- round the clock security of these players is an obvious issue and even insurance against terror attacks cannot be considered as a solution to the life risk.Who would like to bear such a risk?If anything happens to any of these players, the same politicians back home would give out a war-cry for sure.
- coming to cricket, apart from Sohail Tanveer none of the rest had exactly set the stage on fire during the first edition of IPL. Perhaps,the price-utility dynamics did not work in their favour.However, this point in isolation could not have influenced the franchisee owners' decision.So, I feel all these three factors would have played their part in the Pakistani players being left in the lurch.
The funniest part in all these have to be the fingers being pointed at Indian Government for this.The election of Board Officials may be a territory for political manouvers but not the selection of players. We have not gone down to that level atleast.This could be possible in Pakistan but not in India as yet. The sorry state of Pakistan cricket especially the domestic cricket to a certain extent is the result of wrongful use of politics in sports. Just consider this, if at all Indian Government was involved in IPL administration then why the hell IPL had to be moved to South Africa in the last edition.The Government would have surely accomodated both IPL and elections easily.
The call for boycott of cross-border talks, IPL on cable television and screening of Indian movies is an unfortunate one and if not curbed would be a great dampener in the strained relations which were slowly but surely on the path to normalcy. More importantly, all the great work till date towards the peace process would go down the drain. There is some kind of hypocrisy as well.Kabbadi team is stopped from going to India but the Hockey team has not yet been asked to forego the chance to win World Cup. Ofcourse, they know Hockey is of much more importance to them than Kabbadi in terms of their presence in the international scene. I hope there would be atleast one man or for that matter woman from the Pakistan Assembly who would paint the actual picture before all the honourable members. The role of media is the most crucial here. They have the power to influence public opinion and so they should realise their responsibilty and present a rational point of view.
India ho ya Pakistan.....every damn problem starts with Politics and ends with Politics. Comparatively, Indian politics is in a slightly better state it seems. For that one cheer to Indian politicians. Don't mind...all you netas still have a long way to go.
