Cricket is the big winner

Post-mortems may be helpful to medical science but they do nothing for the corpse. Pakistan must put the ODIs behind them. There seems to be...

Post-mortems may be helpful to medical science but they do nothing for the corpse. Pakistan must put the ODIs behind them. There seems to be no point in prolonging the mourning. Already nerves had been frayed by concocting a serious difference of opinion between Imran Khan and Javed Miandad, as if it mattered whether Pakistan needed a bowling coach at this late stage.

Miandad should have stayed focused on his job and he could have responded after the series had ended. As a television expert, Imran Khan was entitled to his opinion. It wasn’t as if it was a papal edict.

India won the series 3-2 and it was a fair result. If Pakistan had won 3-2, that too would have been a fair result. It was a hard fought and close series and thousands who were at the ground and the millions who watched the matches on television were treated to cricket of the highest quality, tense, absorbing and entertaining.

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We have already forgotten how much fuss there was about security and all the news was about how the Indian players would be guarded and how the venues and the hotels had been turned into fortresses. The security remained tight and will remain tight but it it has receded into the background.

I would imagine that the Indian players are feeling more relaxed — or less nervous — about their well-being. But more than the players it has been the Indian visitors, and I don’t mean the luminaries, who have contributed to turning the tour into a festival. They came to Pakistan and brought their hearts with them. They supported their team vociferously and waved their national flag proudly but they remained cheerful and they interacted with the Pakistani supporters returning in equal measure the friendship they received.

The Test matches will be the more serious business but I have no doubt that the same camaraderie will prevail among the supporters of the two teams and the players will go about their business as rivals on the field, competitive and ruthless, if necessary, but within the spirit of the game.

We all tend to invest an Indian-Pakistan cricket match with some higher purpose. In the past this ‘‘higher purpose’’ was something else. But this tour has become a harbinger of friendship. The roles have been reversed. It is cricket that is leading politics by the hand and showing the way.

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The Indians are still celebrating their historic win and they have every right to do so. The Pakistanis are still feeling the pain. But one team had to win and the other had to lose. There’s the pity. But the tour has been an unqualified success so far and that is a matter for rejoicing.