Kailash Kumar
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'Terrible atmosphere' for cricket series with India under Modi government — Pakistani PM
August 20, 2020
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has ruled out a bilateral cricket series with India in the near future, saying current tensions between the neighbors would translate into a “terrible atmosphere” on the cricket ground.
Strained relations between the two nations, who were one before the partition of British India split them into India and Pakistan in 1947, and a decades-long dispute over the Himalayan valley of Kashmir conflict, has laid the foundations of one of the most intense sports rivalries in the world.
Ties have been especially strained over the last year when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government stripped the autonomy of Kashmir, which both nations rule in part but claim in full.
Pakistan and Indian have not played a bilateral Test series since 2008 when already brittle ties were shattered by the Mumbai attacks.
“Right now playing cricket in this atmosphere, with this sort of a government in power [in India], I would imagine it would be a terrible atmosphere on the cricket ground,” Khan said in an interview with former English batsman Michael Atherton for the Sky Sports ‘Out of Exile’ documentary series, which aired this month.
Both India and Pakistan are crazy about cricket and emotions run high whenever the two sides meet, usually in stadiums packed to the rafters and resounding with jingoistic slogan-shouting.
Khan, an international cricketer and former captain of the Pakistan national cricket team, which he led to victory in the 1992 Cricket World Cup, recounted his experience playing in India twice, first in 1979 and then in 1987.
“I can’t tell you the wonderful atmosphere on the cricket fields… excellent atmosphere,” he said of the 1979 series.
But in 1987, given tensions between the two governments, Khan said he “saw hostility in India which I’d never seen before. Our players were being pelted … I made them wear helmets fielding on the boundary.
Once again in 2005, when India toured Pakistan, Khan said he experienced something unprecedented:
“Pakistan lost to India in Pakistan and actually the crowd cheered the Indian team. So, great atmosphere.”
New Delhi and Islamabad have used cricketing occasions to try to make progress on issues that have dogged relations since 1947, especially over the fate of the Kashmir region.
In 1987, then-Pakistan President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq visited India to watch a cricket match. But the event was also used to defuse a crisis over troop build-ups on one of the world’s most militarised borders, meeting Indian prime minister of the day, Rajiv Gandhi
In 2005, Pakistan’s then-military ruler, Pervez Musharraf, traveled to India to watch a cricket match, but the trip also became a summit with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the two leaders agreed to open up the Kashmir border.
https://www.arabnews.pk/node/1722021/pakistan
August 20, 2020
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has ruled out a bilateral cricket series with India in the near future, saying current tensions between the neighbors would translate into a “terrible atmosphere” on the cricket ground.
Strained relations between the two nations, who were one before the partition of British India split them into India and Pakistan in 1947, and a decades-long dispute over the Himalayan valley of Kashmir conflict, has laid the foundations of one of the most intense sports rivalries in the world.
Ties have been especially strained over the last year when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government stripped the autonomy of Kashmir, which both nations rule in part but claim in full.
Pakistan and Indian have not played a bilateral Test series since 2008 when already brittle ties were shattered by the Mumbai attacks.
“Right now playing cricket in this atmosphere, with this sort of a government in power [in India], I would imagine it would be a terrible atmosphere on the cricket ground,” Khan said in an interview with former English batsman Michael Atherton for the Sky Sports ‘Out of Exile’ documentary series, which aired this month.
Both India and Pakistan are crazy about cricket and emotions run high whenever the two sides meet, usually in stadiums packed to the rafters and resounding with jingoistic slogan-shouting.
Khan, an international cricketer and former captain of the Pakistan national cricket team, which he led to victory in the 1992 Cricket World Cup, recounted his experience playing in India twice, first in 1979 and then in 1987.
“I can’t tell you the wonderful atmosphere on the cricket fields… excellent atmosphere,” he said of the 1979 series.
But in 1987, given tensions between the two governments, Khan said he “saw hostility in India which I’d never seen before. Our players were being pelted … I made them wear helmets fielding on the boundary.
Once again in 2005, when India toured Pakistan, Khan said he experienced something unprecedented:
“Pakistan lost to India in Pakistan and actually the crowd cheered the Indian team. So, great atmosphere.”
New Delhi and Islamabad have used cricketing occasions to try to make progress on issues that have dogged relations since 1947, especially over the fate of the Kashmir region.
In 1987, then-Pakistan President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq visited India to watch a cricket match. But the event was also used to defuse a crisis over troop build-ups on one of the world’s most militarised borders, meeting Indian prime minister of the day, Rajiv Gandhi
In 2005, Pakistan’s then-military ruler, Pervez Musharraf, traveled to India to watch a cricket match, but the trip also became a summit with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the two leaders agreed to open up the Kashmir border.
https://www.arabnews.pk/node/1722021/pakistan
