Pakistan backs down

The excuses are already being trotted out that the greater good of the game was at stake, but the fact remains that Pakistan has backed down from its initial support of Bangladesh. The Pakistan government must have known that India was twisting the arms of all those countries which lined up to prevail on Pakistan to play India. The BJP has been sent the message that Pakistan will do anything to turn a dollar. And in the end, it was the money that talked: there was simply too much money that would not be made by Indian broadcasters. The hidden reason, the one no one wants to talk about, is that India-Pakistan matches attract a large number of bets, involving vast sums of money, with one Shiv Sena legislator saying India Rs 1.5 billion were bet on the recent Asia Cup final between the two countries, and would be bet again.

One positive emerging from the whole affair is that the Indo-Pak rivalry is now even bigger than the Australia-England rivalry. Apart from the fact that the governments are not involved, it is more historical than current. It is worth noting that Australia backed down after the Australian Cabinet exchanged cables with the British Cabinet after the respective Boards exchanged insults over the body line bowled by England. Ultimately, the ACB (on instructions from the Cabinet) withdrew the epithet ‘unsportsmanlike’. Now times have changed, and it is India that gets what India wants. In that era, in 1932-1933, the Depression was at its peak. And it could ill afford the loss of exports to the UK, which was threatened by Britain. At that time India had been admitted to the ICC (then the Imperial Cricket Conference), now it has the Presidency which the holder Jai Shah to subordinate to the BJP of his father Amit. The BJP wants Bangladesh to fall in with its programme of assassinations, and not object to the protection given to the killer of Hadi Ali Usman, the student leader. This Indian murder was succeeded by protests outside the Indian High Commission. India’s riposte was to ban Bangladeshi all-rounder Mustafizur Rehman from playing for an IPL team because it was claimed his security could not be guaranteed. Bangladesh then pulled out of the tournament, because its proposal to play its matches in Sri Lanka was rejected. Bangladesh will be compensated, and on this rather thin reassurance, Pakistan will play India. All Pakistan-India encounters are needle matches, but the background to this encounter, It is a must-win for the boys in green, because they will also be playing for Bangladesh.