Cricket is a unique diplomacy tool when it comes to India and Pakistan that has been used for peace as well as war. Even before the teams took the field in Dubai on Sunday, there was a subplot brewing in India, with some people questioning why India were playing Pakistan after what happened in Pahalgam earlier this year. Yet, the match went ahead and ended in high drama as India won the one-sided contest—captain Suryakumar Yadav and Shivam Dube exited the ground without exchanging handshakes and greetings with the fielding team. What stunned the audience was that the India team shut the pavilion door and refused to come out to shake hands with their Pakistani counterparts. Pakistan captain Salman Agha declined to be a part of the post-match presentation.
Shaking hands is not a rule in sports, nor is not doing it something new. In recent times, Ukrainian sports stars have refused to shake hands with Russians after their countries engaged in a bloody war. Political overtures do spill onto the ground. Suryakumar later said they were aligned with the government, but it would have been prudent if the government had come out with some kind of a statement. This is not the only cricketing arena where India are facing Pakistan—the women’s teams will be playing each other next month in Colombo at the World Cup. The relationship is definitely not going to mend that soon.
Though in the days following the April terror attack, the atmosphere was clearly not conducive for India-Pakistan matches in any sport, things seemed to have eased a bit over the months. India, keen on hosting the Commonwealth Games in 2030 and making a strong pitch for Olympics 2036, can ill afford to disallow teams from playing in India or refuse to face a team for political reasons. For the first time, the sports ministry has made it clear that India can indeed play Pakistan in multi-nation events and Pakistan teams will be allowed to participate in multilateral events in India. Pakistan refused to play Asia Cup hockey at Rajgir in Bihar citing security reasons; they are yet to confirm participation for the Junior World Cup hockey in Chennai and Madurai later this year. After Sunday, it’s not clear if things can be ‘normal’ soon.