Cricket has to face reality

Thursday 27th November 2008

England are right to go back. Cricket has to bow to reality. Anybody far away from home, however hospitable the conditions, needs to feel happy and wanted. You cannot live in an atmosphere of helplessness. If I was in a country where armed terrorists were searching for people who carry the same passport I do, I would be on the next flight home. Similarly India must not go to Pakistan and I say so aware of how wonderfully hospitable the people of Pakistan have been in the past. But this is not about you and me, our views, our relationships. It is about sinister people.

It has been said that boycotting tours would play into the hands of those that seek to disrupt; that playing on would be akin to thumbing our nose at them. But sportsmen have bats and hockey sticks, and sometimes just a quick pair of legs. They are entertainers. And even in our part of the world, cricket must grow insignificant at times. It is a game that brings a lot of joy and cheer and optimism but it is just a game. It cannot compete with war. If you can, do tell me this is different; that this isnʼt war by another name.

What a pity though. Sport is one of the very very few things that can still unite people and bring a smile to the lips; that can help some of us forget reality, that can make us children again. Delightfully impish and irrational. Maybe art can do that; and literature. And certainly music. But sport goes beyond. It invokes competition, it reminds us of who we are. We grow passionate and we compete and imagine we are sportsmen too. We score every run they do and take every wicket they do and smile sheepishly at our wives when we return the remote some hours later.
But in the end players go home, spectators do too and we switch off our tv sets and go to bed; upset sometimes, disillusioned briefly too but we go home and we rise another day and we wait for the next game. Without sport we would be poorer, woefully poor but in the hierarchy of needs it must cede place to safety, to comfort, to relief; to the thought that you will see your child the next morning. It must never be different for some others are not so lucky. One day we may not be too but till then our priorities must be in the right order. Sport should be played in an atmosphere of joy. You cannot make a painter paint with a gun to his head.

Our reputation has been dented. Visitors to our shores have been shot brazenly and our people too in trying to defend them. Sadly we are creatures of the environment we live in. If there is a drought in the jungle even the lion must leave. So too must we accept the times and the doctrines that surround us. As we benefit so must we pay.

What a pity because we are largely a hospitable people. We support our team and occasionally scream at the opposition; we challenge their way of living sometimes but we bestow great love and sometimes great luxury on them. Hopefully this too shall pass.

And as England head back they will be relieved and contemplative. They didnʼt play great cricket, certainly not as good as they can. If they look back dispassionately, they will realize they were outplayed in the big moments. They did threaten occasionally but seemed to accept too quickly that the going would be tough. They did themselves injustice. That is why I am so keen to see them play in the tests. Hopefully things would have changed by then; the sea-breeze would have taken this stench away and the Brabourne Stadium, such a wonderful home for cricket, will be packed and cheering.

This morning, being with the family was comforting. Popping by to the other bedroom and seeing the boys sleeping calmly suddenly seemed so much more beautiful. It must be the same with everybody. That is why England had the right to make the decision they did. We must welcome them again; give them no quarter on the field, try to beat them but welcome them to our land.

Harsha Bhogle
ESPNstar.com