When Govts don’t have a say, sports does the talking: an India-Pak pair

As the bus revs up and India’s hockey players and junior cricketers also prepare to play across the border, two tennis players have set...

As the bus revs up and India’s hockey players and junior cricketers also prepare to play across the border, two tennis players have set the trend. India’s top singles player Rohan Bopanna has paired up with Pakistan’s Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi for a doubles tournament in England and could extend the partnership to future events.

The pair are currently taking part in the Bristol Challenger, where they lost in the quarterfinals on Thursday.

When contacted by The Indian Express, Bopanna said: ‘‘We’ve been friends for the past two years, we know each other’s play, we are comfortable with each other.’’

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Asked whether Qureshi’s being a Pakistani had played on his mind, he said: ‘‘If I feel comfortable, that’s the most important thing. It’s just a sport, it’s nothing to make an issue about.’’

Choosing partners from ‘enemy’ countries is nothing new for Qureshi, though: last year he’d set off a storm back home when he paired up with Israel’s Amir Hadad for Wimbledon. The move by the 23-year-old, the son of a multimillionaire businessman and friend of Nawaz Sharif, came in for strong criticism from the Pakistan Tennis Federation and fundmentalists alike.

However, Qureshi, the first Pakistani to play a Grand Slam event, was given a public pat on the back from the ATP for his ‘courageous’ decision when it awarded him and Hadad the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Award for ‘‘their simple message about tolerance through tennis’’.

With Bopanna, he’s done an encore.

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