Kolkata: Sartaj Aziz, Advisor to the Pakistani Prime Minister on External Affairs will attend the Heart of Asia Summit to be held in Amritsar on December 4. And India reciprocated by agreeing to play the Pakistani cricket team in the women’s T-20 Asia Cup in Thailand.
Amidst the simmering tensions between the two countries over the recent acrimony, there’s a ray of light at the end of the tunnel. When the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president, Anurag Thakur appealed to the International Cricket Council (ICC) not to place India and Pakistan in the same group at any ICC event, it was due to a valid reason.
Pakistan for long have been harbouring anti-India sentiments and fomenting trouble in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K). Islamabad’s support to elements that have a score to settle with India has had an effect on diplomatic ties between the two countries. And Thakur being an MP from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) couldn’t have afforded to antagonise his party and government.
However, BCCI seems to have reconciled to the fact that sports and politics should be kept separate and the Indian women’s team will fight for supremacy against its Pakistani opponents. This also takes us back to the Asian Champions Trophy which the Indian Men’s hockey team won beating Pakistan in the finals.
According to high level sources, Najam Sethi from the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) presented video and newspaper clippings of Thakur’s statements that strongly endorsed snapping sporting ties with Pakistan at an ICC meeting in Cape Town recently. Sethi made it clear that Pakistan had always vouched for keeping politics and sports apart. On the other hand, Thakur’s stance smacked of political vendetta, according to PCB.
However, Thakur changed his stance and said that India would play Pakistan in ICC organised tournaments, but a bilateral series was a strict No-No keeping in mind the simmering tensions between the two nations.
Even PCB is quite categorical on resumption of bilateral series with India. At the same time, PCB stated that Pakistan would be keen on playing India anywhere in the world. As far as Women’s Asia Cup is concerned, the participating teams are India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Thailand.
India’s decision to take the field against the Pakistan’s Women’s side seems to be a step in the right direction. Hopefully relations between the two nations will see better days in the times to come.
(With inputs from PTI)