In the recent Asia Cup, Pakistani players exhibited their mindset with pathetic gestures and cheap antics. India skipper Suryakumar Yadav rightly treated them with the contempt they deserve
India players celebrate the fall of a Pakistan wicket during the Asia Cup final in Dubai recently. Pic/ AP, PTI
In 1982–83, I was selected for the India team set to tour Pakistan. The series was labelled as the Goodwill Series. The political masters wanted to rebuild relations strained by two wars between the two nations. Our team manager was the late Fateh Singh Gaikwad, the Maharaja of Baroda — a man of great diplomacy, an orator with sharp wit, and subtle humour.
The instructions to us were pretty clear: build goodwill. Sunil Gavaskar, who was our captain, led us not just on the field but also off it, ensuring that the team worked hand-in-hand with the manager’s efforts.
On the other side stood Pakistan, led by Imran Khan, who is today rotting behind bars, but was then determined to make Pakistan a cricketing power. How? By appointing umpires who could “understand” his intentions, by bending rules to suit him, and by wearing the crown of Punjabi authoritarianism. History shows, in both cricket and politics, that Pakistanis only follow authoritarian leaders.
As for goodwill, well, just forget about it. Fair play was never in the rulebook adopted by the Pakistanis. Throughout the series, no-balls went unnoticed, ball-tampering was openly taught by their “professors” with bottle caps scratching the ball, and rules were treated as mere suggestions. Karma, as they say, is now coming back to bite poor Imran hard.
The Indian team, meanwhile, sincerely tried to uphold the spirit of goodwill throughout the contest. My teammates did everything possible, even off the field to try and maintain this, but the Pakistanis wore a lion’s mask while behaving like foxes. In fact, this Goodwill Series cost us very dearly, with the great GR Vishwanath eventually getting dropped as a consequence, and India missing his presence against the West Indies in 1983.
Fast forward to today. I keep hearing plenty of sense and nonsense on TV debates that are going around. But I felt very proud watching the way India captain Suryakumar Yadav treated the Pakistanis on the field with the contempt they so thoroughly deserve. The icing on the cake, of course, was the Indian captain’s refusal to accept the trophy from a Pakistani official who was on stage for the presentation ceremony. That salute-worthy stand by the Indian camp showed Pakistan their true place. If our team had listened to the fake experts on foreign policy, this glorious moment would’ve been lost.
Let me be blunt here. Our army personnel are the only people who sincerely protect our nation. To question them is unacceptable. Yet, many career-hungry voices once questioned the surgical strikes that were conducted by India on Pakistan. These career-hungry voices just received a fitting and free demonstration of how surgical strikes look, albeit on a cricket field with the world as a witness.
One only has to see the behaviour of the Pakistani players to understand the gravity of the situation here. Their pathetic gestures and cheap antics are a clear exhibition of their mindset. And it is also clear now that goodwill or diplomacy with them is long dead and buried.
The Indian team management had clearly informed the tournament’s organising committee beforehand that they would not be shaking hands after the match. But as usual, the Pakistanis tried to turn this into a political circus, only to fall flat on their faces once again. They forgot that if you spit venom at SKY, it only falls back on your face.
Congratulations to Team India for clinching the Asia Cup in such a confident and dominant manner. Opening batter Abhishek Sharma led the way by caning the Pakistani bowlers throughout the tournament. Of course, in the final, he may have fallen early, but thereafter the left-handed Tilak Varma (69 not out off 53 balls with three boundaries and four sixes) and wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson carried on the intense battle with a pure street-fighter’s attitude. Before the Indian batters did their bit, left-arm wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav did his bit brilliantly. His spinning grenades blew apart the Pakistani batting, dismissing them for just 146 runs in 19.1 overs. Kuldeep claimed an impressive 4-30 in the summit clash against the arch-rivals.
Finally, when the winning boundary came off the bat of Rinku Singh, the smile on Team India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir’s face reminded me of the famous Hindi movie dialogue uttered by the late Amrish Puri, “Mogambo khush hua.”
The author was part of India’s 1983 World Cup-winning team.
Clayton Murzello’s Pavilion End will be back. Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com
The views expressed in this column are the individual’s and don’t represent those of the paper.
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