Like the Ping Pong Diplomacy of Henry Kissinger that took the United States behind the Bamboo Curtain in the 70s, cricket diplomacy in South Asia has been taken to new heights, easing tensions between nuclear-armed neighbors India and Pakistan.
In cricketing parlance, for the first time both nations are playing with a straight bat. Many times leaders and diplomats of the two nations had raised hopes of peace, and many times they brought them crashing down to earth with their intransigent position on the main issue of contention, Kashmir.
The present One-Day cricket series is dubbed the “Goodwill Series” because it will help move forward a tentative peace process. India and Pakistan have begun peace talks over a wide range of disputes, including Kashmir. Transport and cricket links New Delhi had banned since 2000 have been revived. The way the series has been played shows that the people of both nations have risen above the petty jingoistic rhetoric they spouted over the years. Pakistan’s President Gen. Pervez Musharraf emphasized the importance of this series in his address to the nation. He called on the people to treat the series as a game and receive the visitors as honored guests. The Pakistani people responded superbly.
The Indians too were sent to Pakistan with a message from Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee: “Try not only to win the game but also the Pakistani people’s hearts”. Vajpayee, who last year launched what he called a final bid for peace with Pakistan in his lifetime, rephrased the appeal — “We have won the game. We have also won hearts” — soon after India won the series in Lahore 3-2.
The terrific contest between the teams has been complemented by the willingness of the Pakistani fans to cheer both sides for their performances.
The passion of the fans and the hospitality extended to thousands of Indians who descended on Pakistan during the series, the cricket series and the greater contact between the two peoples, have helped blunt political hostility, opening a door that will be difficult to slam shut.
Both political leaders and businessmen from either side of the border displayed a willingness to transcend barriers, and their presence in the stadiums during the cricket series was a testimony to the strengthening of bonds in all areas.
To sum up the mood all one needed to do was look at the banners and buntings that were in evidence in profusion during the One-Day series. Two of them said it all. One had “Atal Behari Musharraf” in bold letters; another, in Hindi, read, “Yeh Dosti Hum Nahi Todenge” (“We will not break this friendship”).
