Just three months ago, when Bal Thackeray decided that Pakistan's cricketers would not be allowed to play in India and his Shiv Sainiks were leaving their ugly mark on Delhi's Ferozeshah Kotla grounds, it would have been difficult to envisage that a special train full of Pakistani cricket fans would soon cross the border and steam into Chandigarh to cheer their side playing on Indian soil. That this actually happened on Wednesday testifies not just to the multiplier effect of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's February bus ride to Lahore, not just to the heady delights of game, but to the sensible and firm manner in which the Shiv Sena chief's grand agenda of hate was consigned to the dustbin of history by Indians everywhere. The unedifying sight of Indian trophies won with such pride lying damaged in the vandalised premises of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in Mumbai proved to be the last straw. Popular disgust at these attempts to subvert the rule of law and impose one man's madness onthe nation soon made itself known. The first Test series at Chennai between the two nations saw cricket fans in this country saluting Pakistan's cricketers. And despite occasional aberrations like the stone throwing incident at Eden Gardens in February, the potential of cricket to heal wounds was clearly on display.In that sense, the decision to allow a thousand cricket fans from Pakistan to visit the country for the Pepsi Cup league match was a master stroke comparable to any issuing from the bat of that little master, Sachin Tendulkar. India's ministry of external affairs, which has often been criticised for placing hurdles on the road to normalising relations between the two nations, demonstrated for once not just generosity of spirit but a sportmanship that Pakistan, hopefully, will reciprocate when its turn comes along. So far Pakistan has liberalised only the visa rules applicable to old people, women and children, unlike India which has ensured hassle-free visas for a large category of Pakistanicitizens. As this newspaper has maintained, time and again, unless the moment is seized, it will be easy to revert back to the bad old times of mutual suspicion and sabre-rattling.Finally, the breaching of borders are effected, not just by governments and their babus, but ordinary people impatient for change. If some among them love their cricket with a passion, so much the better. Cricket, after all, symbolises the common history and culture of the two nations, just as language and music do. One student from Pakistan spoke for many when she observed that school textbooks in both nations have often painted the other country in the most ugly colours for decades. Let those of the emerging generations decide for themselves about the future, she added. But in order for this to happen, political leaders, bureaucrats and ordinary people must lay the foundations for a viable friendship today and keep building upon that. This is a match that is being played on history's pitch. It will have no losers. Only winners.
