Does Pakistan really need cricketing ties with India?
Finally someone had the courage to step up and ask the few million dollars question. Intikhab Alam, infuriated after alleged of being a match fixer, asked a question that needed to be asked, but for the wrong reason.
Inti (as he is intimately called it seems) was outraged because some Pakistani Parliamentarian who can't do without his daily dose of India TV or Aaj Tak or some yellow publication, threatened to call the PCB Chairman Butt (who's the butt of all jokes in the Pak team one gathers), Younis Khan (the wounded warrior) and Inti HIMSELF to appear before some committee to explain Pakistan's poor performance in their last 2 matches at the ICC Champions Trophy.
The fact that the said Mr. Dasti (the parliamentarian) seemed to have his scores to settle with Mr. Butt seems to have been lost somewhere in all this sabre rattling. Because even after claiming that he was misquoted, Jamshed Dasti stood firm on his stand against Mr. Butt.
Inti obviously loved the Indian media when he was coaching the Punjab Ranji team when all those Bhai-Bhai noises were made. But once he tasted the other, darker side of the Indian media, he wants to cut all cricketing ties with India. Was it the BCCI or any other responsible and relevant person who made such allegations? Was it an Indian player who said this? Obviously all these were rhetorical questions.
To come out and say, "The truth is that it is hard for the Indians to digest the fact that
this year in two major tournaments their team, whom they tagged as
favourites, was eliminated in the first round and our team not only won
the Twenty20 World Cup but also reached the semifinal of the Champions
Trophy," , is uncouth to put it mildly. What do you mean by Indians Mr. Alam? Are you implying that the majority of India is still stuck up about Pakistan doing well at the T20 WC and the ICC champions trophy? Maybe you can read the newspaper reports again. Not the ones that Mr. Dasti reads, obviously.
Just the other day there were reports in a Pakistani newspaper about Wasim Akram not being a part of the ESPN commentary team for the T20 Champions League. This was immediately picked up by the India media here and the BCCI and the government categorically denied that he was disallowed an Indian Visa. No one has asked cricketing ties with Pakistan to be snapped (where are the ties anyway?).
If he had a reasonable rationale to feel aggrieved about the way BCCI has treated the PCB with respect to neutral country venues, or the handling of the World Cup venue shift, one thinks he had a valid point. But generally blowing one's top on some media allegation and terming an entire country as unsporting and jealous is going over the top.
One wishes that all Pakistani politicians were as connected to the Indian media reports as Mr. Dasti was. Many more Indian citizens would be alive today.