Diplomacy gone wrong?

"We have taken up the matter with Indian minister for sports.", said Pakistan sports minister. The IPL snub to Pakistani players has turned into a huge diplomatic issue. Depending on who you ask, most Pakistani elite are calling for cutting off sporting ties with India. Most people in India don't care much about the issue but for omnipresent Indian media and elite sportsmen! They feel Pakistanis deserved better. Clearly, BCCI and IPL completely failed at assessing the impact of the snub they gave to Pakistani players.

Now let us put this in context. IPL is a private league run by a private organization, BCCI. Third edition of IPL is expected to generate revenue of 800 Crores. People who own IPL teams are sophisticated businessmen and businesswomen. They prefer making decisions that make business sense. This one, to ignore members of world T20 champion team Pakistan for their teams, makes perfect sense. After all, relations between India and Pakistan haven't been the healthiest in past one and half year. Any new terror strikes against India can create even more tension between these two south Asian nuclear armed nations. Who would guarantee Visas to Pakistani players to play in the IPL if all hell were to break loose? Which businessmen would invest their money for such players whose availability is not even                 guaranteed? Not Vijay Mallya and Mukesh Ambani, for sure.                                                   

Where it gets interesting though, is the fact that, none of the franchises bid for any of the Pakistani player at all. And it all started looking suspicious. People assumed that franchises might have, by covert consensus, decided not to bid for any Pakistani player. Media picked up the issue and it became one of gigantic proportions.

I also have my version of speculation. Franchises asked IPL to advise them on bidding for Pakistani players regarding logistical issues they foresaw. IPL warned them against bidding for these players for Visa and security issues. Franchises decided to tow IPL line.

Doesn't sound too fishy to me. But they failed to present it well. As many "elite" later suggested, IPL could easily have disqualified Pakistani players citing above reasons and depict themselves as transparent in this regard. Lalit Modi's effigies would still have been burnt in Lahore, but for a different reason and MEA, Sports Ministry, BCCI and IPL would not have had to issue clarifications.

Cleary, India lost some brownie points on diplomacy!

Let me know your thoughts in comments section.

It Happens Only in India

07:00 AM
Country 'X' violates ceasefire. one soldier is dead and over ten are injured.

Next Day
18:45
serial blasts...one reported dead so far, more casualties expected
Families of deceased crying bitterly...reporter of a leading news channel 'presenting their plea' in front of the rest of the world....live !

18:48
Investigating Police Officer,"We suspect involvement of foreign hand."

19:50
PM of the country," We strongly condemn this act of cowardice by the terrorists. We will not bow down to such activities. We will continue our fight against terror."

19:50
Home Minister,"Intelligence inputs were provided to the state intelligence beforehand. Warnings were issued to all CMs."
.....
earlier at 19:00
Leader of Opposition," Government has failed on all fronts. Nation has lost trust in the national government.

at 19:05
CM of the suffering state,"We did not receive any intelligence inputs. State police responded immediately. We have diffused one bomb. State has been put of high alert."

.........
20:10
Two more blasts..within a span of three minutes.

Next day:

08:00
Minister of External Affairs of Country 'X' (remember 'Foreign Hand')," We strongly condemn the unfortunate events happened to our neighboring country yesterday. We are ready to provide any kind of support you need to carry the investigation forward. Give us proof of involvement of our agencies, we will act against the culprits."

09:00 AM
Country 'X' violates ceasefire again. FIVE soldiers are dead and over twenty are injured.

How did they do it ? : India vs Pak T-20 !

First goal for India must have been to make it to the next round by restricting the run-rate and stretching the Pak innings beyond 14.4 overs. It was as good a goal as winning. But not many were optimistic when India were tottering at 48-4 from 9 overs. But some good work from Uthappa, Dhoni and Pathan saw India reaching a respectable total. Well ! 141-9 from 20 overs was supposedly not good enough especially when the opposition was Pakistan who had the consistent Salman Butt, blazing Shoaib Malik and the devastating Afridi. India had no experienced bowler other than Agarkar and Harbhajan who were nowhere near their best in recent past. So the odds were heavily against India. Yet they were able to pull off a thriller and managed to keep their record of being unbeaten against Pakistan in world cup intact.


Pakistan looked vulnerable right from the beginning of their innings. RP Singh, Sreeshanth, Agarkar, Pathan and bhajji ; all of them managed to keep the run-rate below 6 till 17th over. Just when it seemed that India had clinched the match, came the devastating over by Agarkar who gave away 17 , leaving 12 required off the last over. Sreesanth gave away 10 of first four balls including two boundaries. It looked like India lost it miserably. Just then he managed a dot ball to Misbah-ul-haq. Now everyone was on his feet waiting for the last ball, with the scores tied. Sreesanth pitched it outside the off stump with a decent bounce and Misbah mistimed it and ran for the ONE run which was not to come. Sreesanth made no mistake in taking the bails off at the other end thus leaving every INDIAN in delight.( BITS common rooms were just one example. Everyone was shouting like anything. People were hugging each other and a few even danced.) So the match lived up to its typical reputation.


Since you can't leave it tied in a T-20 match, a bowl out was still in there. Everyone was again surprised when India gave away the list of its five bowlers : Sehwag, Uthappa, Harbhajan ( !!!) with Pathan and Sreesanth. Pakistan stuck to its regular five bowlers. But soon it became evident that Indians were a lot wiser. All three surprise selections did hit on target while their counterparts were nowhere near the stumps. Uthappa took a bow taking his hat off as he rattled the stumps and everyone went in a tizzy when Afridi missed it as a reply !!

So India proved to be a better side at the end. But a lot of questions remained unanswered.
1. Why could India not score big ?

2. Who should open ? Sehwag failure saga continues.

3. Can Dhoni return to his hitting days ?

4. Did India not miss the BIG THREE, especially the master blaster ?

5. India fielded better. When will they be best ?

6. Why didn't Pakistan hit right from the start ? Were they Helping Indian to get through [:D] ?

Anybody for answers ???

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