ALOK PRASANNA writes from Bangalore: Another set of serial blasts in an Indian city. Ho hum.
Shrill and breathless reporters causing panic and confusion while telling people that there is nothing to worry about. Check.
Clueless police bumbling about the blast scene. Check.
Condemnations against nameless persons issued by anyone entitled to a lal-batthi car. Check.
Tenuous links to militant Islamic organizations drawn on flimsiest evidence (mostly by ignorant bloggers and the people who read them). Check.
Newspaper editorials bemoaning lack of protection for the ordinary citizen. Check.
Citizens picking selves up, brushing off debris and going back to following India’s miserable fate in the Colombo Test. Check.
International (read: white) players threatening to pull out of cricket tournament in Pakistan due to security reasons. Check.
No, you did not read that wrong. And yes, it seems to follow the rest of the above more often than you think.
By all logic and reason, if tours to Pakistan are considered “dangerous”, then India should have been a total no-go for cricketers around the world given the Delhi blasts, the Bombay blasts, the Hyderabad blasts, the Jaipur blasts and now, the Bangalore blasts (admittedly the new airport road kills as many people on a daily basis, but hey a bomb blast is a bomb blast).
Yet, the Shanes (Warne and Watson) were more than happy to fulfil their contractual obligations to their Jaipur based franchise even when the bombs went off in Jaipur smack bang in the middle of the IPL. And “security situation” is hardly a consideration when Kevin Pietersen whines about how the evil ECB is not letting him play in the IPL.
Besides the London Tube bombings happened during Ashes 2005.
Another useful bit of trivia: The only time a match was stopped due to a bomb threat was in, well you guessed it, England. Naturally, no one ran off to catch the nearest flight home, and the players continued after the police checked it out. And this, mind you, was at the height of the IRA bombings in England.
Normally, one finds little reason to support the BCCI whenever it makes a decision, but it deserves a whole hearted back-pat for having supported Pakistan as the venue for the ICC Champions Trophy. An Asia Cup was organized there. India has been touring Pakistan every year or so for the last 5 years without incident. So what is really wrong with Pakistan as a cricketing venue?
Is it the media that seems to can mention Pakistan only in the context of bad news, and occasionally, for a change, worse news?
Is it Sir Ian “Beefy” Botham’s infamous categorization of Pakistan as a mother-in-law-holiday destination?
Or is it a simple case of “money talks, bullshit walks”?
If the Indian experience is anything to go by, shouldn’t the ordinary cricket fan in Pakistan, who has to undergo enough troubles to sit in a concrete hellhole passing for a “stand”, subject himself to numerous intrusive “searches”, give up on security so that the “players’ security” is taken care of, get a small opportunity to watch the best players of the world go up against each other?
I don’t know about you, but the more I think of this the more the words “DOUBLE STANDARDS” keeps popping up.
Also read: Victory off the field
churumuri 
A journalist from across the border voices similar opinion
http://faisalk.wordpress.com/2008/07/24/cricket-survives-another-scare/#comments
LikeLike
A journalist from across the border voices similar opinion
http://faisalk.wordpress.com/2008/07/24/cricket-survives-another-scare/#comments
LikeLike
Yet another article that completely ignores the harsh reality in Pakistan.
Why does not the author do little bit of work before writing such an article? He should have tried to compute the number of bomb blasts that occur every month and year in Pakistan and in India for the past few years.
He would have known then that he was trying compare apples to oranges.
LikeLike
With the blasts in Ahmedabad, I think things are gonna be same in India also!
LikeLike
With the blasts in Ahmedabad, I think things are gonna be same in India also!
LikeLike
yella gottidde guru! pakistanadalli kaasilla!
Now do a Gandhi on this and fast for donating money to Pakistan.
LikeLike
The reason cricketers want to tour India is because of the lure of money. For cricketers to tour a country either there should be good money or the country should have a world beating team. Pakistan, at the moment has none. India has money and the Aussies tour,they become world beaters.
LikeLike
alok prasanna has made the mistake of ignoring the basic fact that in pakistan the govt and military actively support millitant /terrorist /jihadi organizations, while operating behind a veil of democracy.
India does not.
this is basically what makes pakistan a more dangerous place.
churmuri should not give space to pseudo-intellectuals like alok who think pakistan and India can be compared when the fact is that there is hardly anything in common.
India is full of such people who think pakistan should be treated with kid-gloves.
we had a person before, called mohandas karamchand X – who also advocated treating pakistan with love and today the result is there for all to see.
what we need are more people of the calibre of Field Marshal Manekshaw and Field marshal Cariappa and less aloks and these so called peace activists.
Turning the other cheek works only when the other person also as decent as you are. It does not work with jihadis or their supporters.
LikeLike
For the same reason that common Indians are afraid of going to Pakistan. Most people in Pak support terrorism. This is a well documented fact based on scientific surveys. Remember 9/11? Indians felt sorry for the victims. Pakis danced on the streets and then went home and blamed the Jews for it.
LikeLike
Well written stuff.:)
LikeLike
Paki’s govt ( not all their people) supports insurgents..
ISI and terrorists.. will face the wrath..
shame shame
Putting bombs in india..BOYCOTT the CRICKET ICC tournament
Australia, India and England and NZ should boycott
this time for sure.. ONLY BANGADESH, SL and Pakistan can
play for tri series
BOYCOTT the ICC tournament…
LikeLike
Alok perhaps forgot to add or may be he was crafting this piece too soon…the Pakis showed their gratitude in their inimical style by organizing bombs in Bengaluru and Ahmedabad for Indian support at the ICC. Then they will convince the ICC, “Hey whats the differenc? PAk is as safe as India and we are working hard to see they too have the same number of explosions very soon…”
LikeLike
Who cares about double standards in sports , honestly ! We got better things to worry about than the so- called discrimination of pakistan in international sports. For all their terror support they deserve it.
LikeLike
Pakistan’s government is a theocratic state.
India’s is based on democracy. !!
LikeLike
@Ganesh
Thanks :)
@the rest
I thought the point of this post was that sports and “terror” were being unnecessarily mixed, and it was in fact hypocritical of certain sportspersons to do so, since they seem to pick and choose which sorts of “terror” to mix with sports.
A cricket fan is a cricket fan. Only someone who follows cricket simply because their nation is playing and see cricket as a means to improve “national self-esteem”(sorely missing in other areas) will want to deny true cricket fans the opportunity of enjoying watching Kevin Pietersen take on Ajantha Mendis on the grounds of “theocratic state”(??), “they are all jihadis”.
As someone who has found joy watching Shoaib Akhtar steam in, Murali twirl his bag of tricks and Lara’s drives scythe through the field even if they are playing against India, I would like to believe that I am a cricket fan, and not just an Indian cricket fan.
This is therefore the post of someone who sees this whole terror, boycott, jehadi-loving-Pakistani-deserves-to-die, white-players-can-never-be-safe-enough through the eyes of a cricket fan, and is pained that a beautiful game is being polluted.
LikeLike
If for one moment any of you believe that most people in Pakistan support terrorism or jihadis you have gone quite mad!!
Most people in Pakistan are worried about their next tankful of gas or their next months salary or any of the various problems that plague any third world nation long on populace and short on resources. The only people who believe in the so called “Holy war” are dumb fucks brainwashed in madrassahs since child hood or newly turned pseudo fundamentalists.
Frankly as a Pakistani i do not give a shit about Jihad, do not think killing Indians sends anyone to heaven and do not believe half the poppycock our media tells us. Oh and you can have bloody Kashmir as well.
LikeLike
Faisal K,
Great comment! Why don’t you and your like-minded friends work on reforming these madrasas?
LikeLike
There is plenty of effort however there are also many misconceptions about madrassas in the media for instance the recently released clip on the children of Karachi was utter b.s. The Madrassah shown in that is not some place associated with the Taliban but a place where many ex pats send their children to summer camps for religious taleem.
This was later discovered after the media had run riot painting a picture of abysmal abduction by the said masrassah of these children.
There are many like minded people and organizations who are working on bringing moderate and well formed madrassah out into the mainstream educational arena were they can perhaps get equivalency and due respect.
It is a bit of a shame Doddi when educated people like you accuse Pakistan of bombings without so much as a shred of evidence.
LikeLike
For all those who can’t understand Faisal’s point of view I suggest you watch Khuda key liye
LikeLike
For all those who can’t understand Faisal’s point of view I suggest you watch Khuda key liye
LikeLike
Modulus Balu,
First you read this.
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/296165.html
LikeLike
lal masjid anyone? if all is so hunky dory then why is the great army of the islamic republic of pakistan laying sieges on madrasas (haqqani) which as it turns out was empty by the time army reached thanks to the great intelligence agency.
LikeLike
VP thanks.
LikeLike
No problem TS.
LikeLike
Faisal,
OK I get it. You had me momentarily distracted…it is business as usual:) You need evidence such as three eye witnesses during a rape with the fourth guy commiting the rape just like it is set out in the religious book. You need evidence like these right? Hmm sorry we have moved away from this Madrasa Logic :(
LikeLike
DB,
I dont think that Faisal will condemn or do anything to reduce the cult of the Madrasa.
How can you when you are raised in a theocratic country where you are taught from childhood that your religion is superior to others? And the argument seems to be – After all what the Madrasas are doing is just an amplification of the Koran etc.
Thank God I am an Indian!
LikeLike
Faisal Bhai:
I am from Montreal, originally from India. I have been to Lahore a few times and thoroughly enjoyed my visits . Will be there soon again.
Why are we brothers fighting over the lack of a backbone of the Austalians ? I will tell you dost why the australians will play in India and not in Pakistan ?
It is money and sponsorships. that is it. the rest is excuses.
LikeLike
Please let us not disrespect anybody’s faith or Holy books without understanding them.
LikeLike
It is no secret that Pakistan produces terrorists by the thousands, funds them etc. These terrorists then attack other countries and stuff. I guess the common man in Pakistan, like in India loves his cricket. It is a shame that the common man won’t see any cricket in the country for at least the next three years. But let us not forget that these ‘terrorists’ are Pakistani citizens. Not all Pakistani people are terrorists. But terrorists born in Pakistan have stated very clearly that it is their desire to attack western countries and its people.
India has never attacked another country ever.. in all its history.. of thousands of years. Pakistan has. Indian people are not terrorists and do now wish to attack another country or its people. India faces threat from Pakistani funded militants. India does not fund/support any terror group.
Hence.. Nuclear Deal for India. Not Pakistan. Cricket in India. Not in Pakistan.
LikeLike
@Alok,
Your racist tirade against “white” cricketers goes right outside the window. The WI crickets scraps the test series against Pakistan.
http://www.hindu.com/2008/10/10/stories/2008101054382200.htm
LikeLike
@Alok,
Would you care to put in a rejoinder after today’s happenings?? Do you still think players don’t want to go to Pakistan only because the money-ain’t-there? Would you send your mother-in-law to Pakistan?
LikeLike