00:00I have a my take. I feel strongly about these issues so let me give you my take. I have always
00:05been a firm advocate of Indo Park cricket in the hope that sports can build bridges where politics
00:11cannot. No longer. The hope of sports as a bridge builder between two hostile neighbors has been
00:18dimmed in recent times. The terror attack in Pehalgaam and the complete lack of empathy shown
00:25by the Pakistani army state and dare I say even more troubling the incendiary remarks made by
00:31some former Pakistani players make it apparent that it could no longer be business as usual with
00:37Islamabad. The Modi government made it clear that blood and water cannot flow together by putting
00:42the Indus Water Treaty on hold. How then can cricket and terror coexist? Last night's game only further
00:49shows how sport is only now an instrument for competitive jingoism. When a game becomes
00:55a platform for war minus the shooting, when performative nationalism takes over and when
01:02players cannot even show the minimum courtesy of shaking hands with each other there is something
01:08horribly wrong. Next time either don't play cricket with Pakistan or if you believe it's a compulsion
01:13then gracefully accept conventions of sport including a handshake. Let's not reduce cricketers to pawns in a
01:20larger battle only to cater to domestic constituencies looking to settle scores. Sports is expected my
01:27friends to bring out the best in us not the worst else we are hurtling down a very dark and slippery
01:34slope where players will be expected to play the role of soldiers in uniform and if the players BCCI and GOI
01:42government of India want to truly put the victims of PALGAM first. Here is my suggestion. All your
01:48earnings from India-Pakistan cricket games should go to support the families of the victims of Pakistan-based terror.
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