News and Views

Is it curtains for Indo-Pak cricket relations?
The recent failure of talks between the President of Pakistan and the Prime Minister of India seems to have dampened hopes for revival of bilateral cricket for now. Sadly, at least till a political compromise is reached, sub-continent sports must remain subservient to the whims of political leaders.

The other day, Indian Minister of State for Sports reiterated, "After taking all the relevant factors into consideration, the Government has come to the view that the circumstances prevailing at present are not fully conducive for Indian cricket team to play bilateral matches against Pakistan".

Surely, matches are matches whether bilateral, trilateral or multilateral. India is scheduled to play a test match at Lahore mid September as part of the Asian Test Championship. If the Indian team is allowed to play in a multilateral series against Pakistan, why are they forbidden to play a bilateral series? One also fails to understand how do 'prevailing circumstances' change with the nature and nomenclature of a tournament? Well, all one can say is that politics is really an intriguing game for simpletons like us to understand!

Players' trend of luxurious living
One had always thought cricket players are rough and tough professionals who are supposed to live and enjoy life under all circumstances. Unfortunately the ICC regulations specifically asking for provision of 5-star hotel facilities for visiting teams within 30 minutes of travelling time to the ground, belies its own plan of spreading cricket to every nook and corner of the globe.

Surely every city that has a stadium good enough to stage an international match does not necessarily possess a 5-star hotel? The location of such hotels is primarily dependent on their financial/commercial feasibility and cannot possibly be linked with the visit of foreign teams. The hosts, however, always manage to provide visitors with the best available boarding and lodging facilities.

Looking at Pakistan only, assuming this rule is strictly applied will likely make about half a dozen historical cum popular cricket centres redundant. Possessing beautiful stadiums, the cities of Gujranwala and Sheikhupura are located over one hour's drive from Lahore. Although both have been the regular international match centres, Gujranwala had the honour of successfully staging a World Cup match in 1987.

The teams used to drive from Lahore and back with no one ever cribbing about the journey. With the everyday rise in traffic, driving time cannot possibly be reduced. The remedy lies only in providing the visiting team a helicopter service but at who's expense? The only other option is to enhance travel time to one hour.

Similarly, Sialkot and Hyderabad are other cricket venues that offer 4-star facilities to visiting teams, which are normally accepted. While Sialkot happens to be the biggest centre of sports goods industry in Asia, Hyderabad has enjoyed the distinction of staging the 1st World Cup match in 1987. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) would certainly not like to abandon them.

Multan, an old test match centre with a big population of cricket lovers has built a most modern cricket stadium. The city has only a 4-star hotel but is staging its inaugural Test against Bangladesh in the Asian Test Championship, because the visitors have accepted the facility with great pleasure.

If the conditions laid down by the ICC are strictly enforced, I am sure many cities around the world would lose their international match centre status. The unwanted reduction in the scope of international cricket would thus be detrimental to the development of the game. To help grow the game we all love, perhaps some luxuries must be separated from cricket to enable the game to flourish.