Thats not cricket!

India won the Asia Cup. Everyone is jubilant players, fans, sponsors, politicians, the BCCI, even our honourable Prime Minister. Yet behind the fireworks and hashtags, I can’t help but say it: the emperor is naked. What we witnessed was not sport. It was a metaphor for war.

Should India even play Pakistan? some asked, we just went to war, terrorists attacked, people died, is this how one respects our martyrs. Others countered: How can we gift Pakistan a walkover, and thus the trophy? Is this how one respects our armed forces. But this was always the wrong question. Because there was no “play” to begin with. None of the attributes for something to be considered a sport were met, fair play, joy, respect. Runs were scored and wickets fell, but the sport itself was forced out of the boundary. 

The Prime Minister’s tweet summed it up: “Operation Sindoor on the games field.” Stirring words after a victory. But imagine if India had lost would he have admitted that the soldiers in cricket whites had “lost a war”? When the symbolism of war is draped on the shoulders of sportsmen, there is no joy of sport, every misfield or mistimed shot becomes treason. Is that how we want to view sports?

Spare a thought for the players. Soldiers are trained to kill and, if needed, to die. Cricketers are trained to bat, bowl, and field. Should they also be asked to carry the burden of national loyalty every time they walk onto the ground? Should every action on the sports field be viewed through the lens of war? What message are we giving the children picking up a bat in their gullies? 

Not long ago, after India lost to Pakistan, certain players’ loyalties were openly questioned. That is the tragic cost of blurring the line between sport and politics. Sport should be a space for joy, competition, and mutual respect. When it is reduced to theatre for nationalism, both the game and the players lose.

Frankly, neither the people of India nor Pakistan deserve a cricket match, not until they can see it for what it truly is, a game, not a proxy for war.