Diplomatic spats and warmongering between India and Pakistan are old stuff. Now a new row has broken out between the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours over Pakistani cricketers being left out of a lucrative Indian tournament.
Pakistan is furious that its leading cricketers, who enjoy iconic status in the cricket-crazy nation, were overlooked in the annual auction of players for the multimillion-dollar Indian Premier League (IPL).
In the auction held in a Mumbai hotel on Tuesday, none of the eight team owners either business barons or Bollywood actors bid for the 11 Pakistani players who were listed among 60 leading international cricketers.
Those overlooked included Shahid Afridi, captain of the national team that won the Twenty20 World Cup tournament in London last year, and Sohail Tanwar, the highest wicket taker in the inaugural IPL in 2008. West Indian all-rounder Kleron Pollard and New Zealand pacer Shane Bond fetched the highest possible price of US$750,000 (RM2.5 million) each at the auction.
Afridi, who was among the players with the highest base price of US$250,000, said India and IPL had “made fun” of the Pakistani players. An angry Islamabad cancelled a parliamentary delegation’s visit to India in protest, while former cricketers demanded that Pakistan boycott the World Cup hockey tournament to be held in Delhi from February to March. Others called for a ban on the screening of Bollywood films in Pakistan.
Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the IPL’s failure to pick Pakistani players showed that India was not interested in peace with Pakistan.
Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna denied charges that the Pakistani players were excluded at the government’s behest.
Separately, the External Affairs Ministry said 17 Pakistani cricketers were issued Indian visas “at very short notice” to participate in IPL 2010, and noted that IPL was a commercial event and “a matter not within the purview of the government”.
Sources said worries that Pakistanis could be barred from the games at the last minute, and the possibility that the matches could be disrupted by Hindu hardline groups, especially if they are held in Mumbai, had prompted the team owners to overlook them.
“We were looking for players who would be available for the whole tournament. It is not that we specifically didn’t want Pakistan players,” said actress Shilpa Shetty, owner of the Rajasthan Royals team.
The Pakistani players had participated in the first edition of the IPL in 2008, but missed out on the second one held in South Africa, as they were denied permission by their government following tension with India over the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks by a Pakistan-based Islamic fundamentalist group.
Despite the explanations, the Indian media, commentators, former diplomats and cricketers showed no signs of letting up their criticism of the alleged mistreatment of Pakistani players by IPL. “If there was no intention to use these guys, why put them up for auction at all?” asked Mr G. Parthasarathy, a former envoy to Pakistan.
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