Not just cricket when it's India vs Pak

I just choke on the term lsquocricketrsquo diplomacy when it comes to India and Pakistan Seriously you need to be in a stadium with Indian and Pakistani cricket fans during one such match to experience the animosity No really This isnrsquot ldquosportsmanshiprdquo of the extreme kind It is antipathy bordering on visceral hate And it comes up most during a high profile cricket match What diplomacy and what diplomats The sheer glee on the faces of Indian and Pakistani diplomats when wickets of the other side topple has to be seen to be believedIndian fans celebrate after batsman Virat Kohli scores a century during the IndiaPakistan match at the Adelaide Oval on Sunday PicAFPAs one commentator said ldquoIndiaPakistan match hai to garmii toh hogirdquo Another remarked ldquopataakon ka kya hogardquo when Pakistan lost the match on Sunday Kapil Dev tried to be magnanimous for about 30 seconds but Shoaib Akhtar made a plaintive appeal ldquojaley par namak na chidakiyerdquoThe next best thing or worse thing to being in a stadium during an IndiaPakistan match is to watch it in on a big screen TV with one eye on the social media page of your choice Twitter burst into hundreds of thousands of tweets on Sunday in India and Pakistan And Indians and Pakistanis everywhere in the world woke up at odd hours because of the time difference with Australia where the World Cup 2015 is being played Over 41000 people were in the stadium in Adelaide when the home team was not playingI can happily admit that the best experience I have had is watching an IndiaPakistan match in a stadium in an enclosure with a giant TV screen so that replays are visible and shooting nasty tweets at the opposing side The stress of multiplicity of mediums to vent onersquos excitement is intoxicatingOf course there are nonSAARC countries participating in the tournament But the match that draws maximum eyeballs maximum advertising and maximum adrenalin is an India versus Pakistan match As one Twitter handle RushdieExplains tweeted ldquoAs Sadat Hasan Manto might say Partition totally worth it for excitement of IndiaPakistan cricket matchesrdquoA Ranbir Kapoor advertisement has him taping his mouth and pulling it off saying ldquoCricket ka daura jab padtaa haihelliptehziib toh tauba taubardquo Nail head dishoom Thank God the censor board cannot censor our tweets and comments while watching IndiaPakistan cricket matchesIt is thus hard to understand the goodwill that cricket is supposed to generate Yes we have all seen General Zia ul Haq General Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif meeting Indian cricketers Not to mention Imran Khanrsquos politicocricket comments But there is sharpness to the interactions that cannot be missed Indian cricketers have several anecdotes to tell of the tension on the field and in the dressing room during IndiaPakistan matchesThe pressure of politicians adds to the high expectations from their respective cricket teams Diplomacy is about reducing tensions isnrsquot it Dr Manmohan Singh travelled to Mohali to join his counterpart Yusuf Raza Gilani in 2011 even though he was probably the only one in the history of cricket who sat through an IndiaPakistan match showing zero emotion Neither Prime Minister reflected the illwill that exists between the fans of the game on both sides nor were they able to impress upon their countries that cricket could bring the two sides closerNo dear politicians Keep diplomacy out of cricket It is pure unbridled rivalry here ldquoHaath say chooh kay issey rishton ka ilzaam na dordquo So there is really no point in sending Foreign Secretary Jaishankar to hotfoot his way to Pakistan over cricket He can talk about river water sharing fishermen and disputably undisputed issues whatever Just leave cricket out of it And leave it out of Track 2 and its abcd versions tooThey have the best bowlers we have the best record of winning matches at the World Cup Let us slug it out on the cricket field without film stars and politicians bringing in their respective agendas More cricket wonrsquot improve ties just as less cricket wonrsquot impact bilateral ties There is nothingcalled cricket diplomacy As it is there is too much corruption chaos and filth in the game The last thing we need is to have Indian and Pakistani politicians hijack cricketing events to discuss Kashmir and Sir Creek against the backdrop of nailbiting gamesSmita Prakash is Editor News at Asian News International You can follow her on twitter smitaprakash