The Hindu : A fair and fitting advisory

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 19, 2003

Sport

Sport - Sports : General

A fair and fitting advisory

By S. Thyagarajan

In the razzmatazz of the World Cup in South Africa, a very significant and a far-reaching decision on sport has sunk in without any notice. The advisory to the Indian Olympic Association to skip the South Asian Games at Islamabad from March 29 to April 7 by the Government contains little to cause surprise or consternation. In a way, it is in keeping with the cautious steps taken at keeping sporting contacts with Pakistan to the minimum, even as the relations between the countries have touched the nadir as never before.

What probably weighed with the Government is security. In no way can this be questioned or faulted, as the scenario in Pakistan is viewed as alarming despite protestations to the contrary. Several countries have issued a travel advisory to their citizens to avoid Pakistan. Even the scheduled cricket tours have been shifted to Sharjah and Morocco after West Indies and Australia refused to play in Pakistan.

The security concern for India is all the more greater considering the polemics between the countries on almost every issue, notably on sport, where India consistently is refusing to play Pakistan in cricket. What else can one expect when the star players like Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly face kidnapping threats from Jihadi groups. Even the hockey stalwart Dhanraj Pillay was targeted, forcing him to avoid the coaching camp in Jammu last year.

Against this background, it is too much of a risk to send a huge contingent of 200 plus to Islamabad, even granting that India, as in the previous editions, will dominate and top the medals tally.

What guarantee is there that a kidnap attempt will not be staged to attract international attention, or take athletes as hostages as a bargaining point for something more sinister? True, security for Indians will be doubled. But does not competitive sport demand a free and pleasant environment for participants to perform? Can the Indians touch their best in a tense atmosphere where the anti-Indian hysteria will definitely be whipped up consciously by some sections?

It is difficult at this juncture to refrain from recalling the trauma faced by the Indian hockey team in the 1990 World Cup at Lahore. Qualitatively, the squad was strong enough for a place in the last four, but from day one the supporters of JKLF never allowed it a minute's respite.

Traumatic past

Under pressure right from the time of arrival — the team was whisked away in police vans under the cover of darkness from a different exit point at the airport — the Indians did not even have the luxury of open air training, confined as they were to the hotel, limbering up in the lobby.

When the crucial match against Holland came, the Indians were subjected such heckling — even slippers were thrown on to the ground — demoralising the players. So alarming was the atmosphere that the Dutch team and the Tournament Director from Germany, Hanzje Woltje, offered to abandon the match after half-time. But the Indians, led by Pargat Singh, and coach, M.P. Ganesh, would have none of it. They agreed to continue, and India lost after a gallant fight. The FIH top brass showed no hesitation in awarding the Fair Play Trophy for India that year.

Worthy though the appreciation of the FIH, the fact that the team was consciously demoralised by the demonstrations at every turn preventing it to performing to its potential cannot be obliterated. It is still fresh on the mind for many of how the national cricket captain, Kris Srikkanth, was attacked on the field by a fan who hoodwinked the security at Karachi in 1989. Isolated though these incidents were, they do create a scare.

It is not as if India has always opposed to playing in Pakistan. In fact, a big contingent took part successfully when the SAF Games were staged in Islamabad in 1989. But 14 years later, the conditions are complex, the atmosphere vitiated by so many happenings where innocent men, women, children and institutions were subjected to attack and destroyed. Sport thrives and blossoms when the heart and mind are free, when men and women enjoy the combat in the best of sporting traditions and not revenge looming large at the back of the mind.

Understandable is the predicament of the Indian Olympic Association and its boss, Mr. Suresh Kalmadi. Comprehensible too is the desire of giving sport that honoured place as the instrument to bring together the divided nations. But the situation does not warrant optimism now. The IOA should view the issue from a nationalist and sentimental perspective, and not merely highlighting the sanctity of sport getting the better of polemics or political equations.

Safety is the top priority

The top priority for any country is the safety of its sportspersons, and no institution, least of all, the IOA, raised a voice of protest, when United States pulled out of the three-Test World Cup qualifier hockey series against India citing the prospect of India-Paksitan war in June last. Eventually, the series was played in Cannock where the Indians failed to make the grade.

There is no case for India to review the decision since Pakistan is perceived as a zone of danger for sporting activity. It is difficult to digest the advocacy of Mr. Kalmadi that non-participation in Islamabad would affect the Afro-Asian Games, or even the bid for the Commonwealth Games for 2010. The U.S. decision to boycott Moscow in 1980 had no effect on it staging the Olympics in 1994 at Los Angeles and again in 1996, the Centenary edition at that, in Atlanta.

Whether India needs the luxury of the Afro-Asian Games at all, be it in Delhi or Hyderabad, is debatable, considering the state of the economy as also the value attached to such events under the IOC Charter.

Judged within the parameters of security and the prospect of facing a very hostile response from the spectators, the IOA would well be advised to appreciate the Government's logic and reasoning than stepping up pressure and resort to a campaign on the sensitive issue. How will the Prime Minister view the request for a review remains to be seen.

True, India will miss the medals, a hundred of them perhaps and the cash awards and rewards that go with them. But, for a moment, look at the agony and sorrow in the eyes of the widows, the fear and trauma in the orphaned children, or the bullet marks on the sacred institutions and temples! Do we still need Pakistan's hospitality at Islamabad for our sportsmen, women and administrators at the SAF Games?

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