Along with the confidence that must be coursing through the veins of the South African team and the rude but timely shake-up for hosts India, the best thing to have come out of the Sunday night T20 World Cup encounter was the disappearance of the cringe cupcake promo for the match on the ICC’s host broadcaster, Star Sports.
Post-match, the Indian rights holders Jiostar quickly switched to IPL promos while their social media handle used a car accident film clip to describe Indian fans’ Sunday evening. At this World Cup, some of the cricket promos and social media content have only ended up embarrassing one of the two hosts’ cricket and their team. And no, we’re not talking about Sri Lanka.
But the World Cup is also the event where voices outside the usual din of Indian cricket rah-rah can be heard. Last Tuesday, a letter signed by 14 international captains asking for one of their own, Imran Khan, to be treated with “dignity and basic human consideration” was released. Greg Chappell, who was the brains behind the letter, told the Cricket et Al podcast it “must make the Pakistan government uncomfortable that this group from all around the world is making some noise and bringing some focus to a situation that is unacceptable.”
As far as is known, the Pakistan government had not responded to the cricketers but on Sunday, Sri Lanka captain Arjuna Ranatunga also posted his support for Imran. When the letter first appeared our minds and hearts, subjected to 24-7-365 cringe social media, promos and talk-ups, took a nano second more, an extra beat to recognise the harmonious sound of a community in chorus. Which is what it was.
Signed by a group of elite cricketers – including two celebrated Indians, Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev – the letter is not an endorsement of Khan’s politics or a calling out of the current situation in Pakistan. It just remembers a supreme competitor who, to the befuddlement of many of his tribe, has become a very famous political prisoner. There’s an earnest sweetness in cricketers from everywhere asking for Imran to be treated with the respect they feel for him. Chappell said the letter was about, “here’s a mate who’s being treated pretty bad…”
There was no Pakistani name on the letter, giving rise to snarky comments and TV ‘debates’ on our shores. Given that the X handles of Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Ramiz Raja, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammed Hafeez are withheld in India, “in response to a legal demand,” maybe their posts in support of Imran four days before the letter were not seen by Imran’s many Indian media fans.
Chappell told the podcast the captains’ letter was, “Not a political statement, it is a human rights situation.” He had reached out to around 20 cricketers, of which thirteen replied, “with alacrity … (they) came back within minutes and said yes.” Chappell said it, “staggered me the most.” He also noted Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev who, “probably had the more pressure than the rest of us and they both reacted instantly.”
Living in India’s jingoism-soaked cricketverse alongside the forever-on Indo-Pak hate machine, any display of pan-national solidarity in cricket these days feels, at the first instance, a relief. A burst of oxygen. Of big-name folk leaping over boundaries in support of an old competitor and a huge figure in the game. They didn’t need to love/ adore/ worship Imran, as one messaged: “Well, he was an arrogant fellow at times, but no man needs to be treated that way.”
A few other threads have floated through this World Cup. Firstly, about an accurate assessment of what has become of the India-Pakistan rivalry. In his run-up to the game, former England skipper Michael Atherton called it a “miserable, toxic spectacle…” “in its present guise, as a proxy for political point scoring.” Commentator Harsha Bhogle, on his YouTube channel preview of the game, said it was, “being held hostage to larger economic and political ends… I don’t think we enjoy the game any more, we exploit it.”
That now appears to be the norm.
The revenue-managers who now run the global game in other countries may have imagined that what happened at the Asia Cup was an Asian issue. And that was how far it was going to go. Mistake. It’s now reached The Hundred, the ECB’s flagship event to win over different and Asian audiences. BBC reported that four of the Hundred’s eight teams (with Indian ownership) would ignore Pakistani players when picking teams. Even though this is outside of the fact that the Hundred is coinciding with a Pakistan tour and that there are only a few foreign slots available, the report has rightly raised a ruckus in England.
A few days later another BBC report said the ECB had written to the franchises reminding them of their ‘responsibilities around discrimination’ and that the franchises could be referred to England’s independent Cricket Regulator. But the report has no direct quotes from the letter or any ECB spokesperson. Posting in response to this news posting as @WG_RumblePants, an England fan asked, “If this is going to be the way of things, can we maybe just give the money back. It’s not going to be worth the hassle.” Another sum of money to remember – the ECB’s share of ICC’s revenues at approx. 6.89% ($41.33m) is second highest to the BCCI’s 38.5%. Another sum of money that’s already caused much hassle.
India’s next match, against Zimbabwe, is on Thursday. Here’s hoping we are spared another cupcake promo.
