It is one of the fiercest rivalries in sports. It cranks up nationalistic fervor in two nuclear-armed neighbors. It draws viewership across the world, given the vast diasporas of the two competitors: India and Pakistan.
And yet somehow the game of cricket has, at times, offered a fragile semblance of civility even during the most strained moments between the two countries. Tensions away from the sport, it was said and hoped, could be cooled on the field with a simple handshake between the two teams.
But none of that was in evidence on Sunday night.
India and Pakistan were facing off in the United Arab Emirates in a group stage game of the Asia Cup tournament. Batting second, India cruised to victory. Then, with barely a glance backward, the Indian players walked off the field. No handshakes. No exchange of pleasantries.
“We were ready to shake hands,” said Pakistan’s coach, Mike Hesson, a New Zealander. “But they had already gone in.”
In a postmatch news conference, Suryakumar Yadav, the Indian captain and the player who scored the winning runs, said that the snub had been planned.
He dedicated the win to India’s armed forces and to the victims of a massacre in which 26 people were killed on the Indian side of Kashmir in April that his country’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, described as a “terror attack.” India accused Pakistan of being involved in the assault, a claim that Pakistan denied. The episode led to some of the worst fighting in decades between the two countries before a cease-fire was declared.
Going into the cricket match, the first since the conflict, India’s government and its cricket establishment were “aligned,” Mr. Yadav said, appearing to acknowledge a new level of nationalistic fervor being attached to the game in India. He added, “We gave the proper reply.”
Sharda Ugra, a sports journalist in India, said that there was a more forceful way for India to have lodged a protest against Pakistan. The team could have forfeited Sunday’s game.
“It would mean two points less, which would in turn mean they had to fight harder” to advance in the tournament, she said. “That would have made a bigger statement because it would show this is what you’re willing to put on the line.”
On the Pakistani side, the reaction to the snub was sharp and angry.
Salman Agha, the captain of the Pakistani team, skipped the postmatch ceremony and the team filed a complaint with the match referee.
The chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, Mohsin Naqvi, who also leads the Asian Cricket Council, issued a terse public statement, saying: “Utterly disappointing to witness the lack of sportsmanship today. Dragging politics into the game goes against the very spirit of sports.”
But in India, many celebrated the move, and there was little criticism of Mr. Yadav and his team. Online, some users called the gesture long overdue.
In a way, it was the heavyweight of the sport throwing its weight around. India is the economic engine of cricket and is home to one of the richest leagues in all of sports, the Indian Premier League. India’s cricket authorities also have links to the government — Jay Shah, chairman of the sport’s worldwide governing body, the International Cricket Council, is the son of Amit Shah, a powerful lieutenant of Mr. Modi.
Ammar Ali Jan, a historian in the Pakistani city of Lahore, said that the Indian cricket team’s decision not to acknowledge their opponents at the end of the game was another sign of the influence of Mr. Modi and Hindu nationalism.
“It is now shaping every sphere India participates in, including international sport,” he said. “It’s damaging the spirit of sportsmanship. It’s damaging cricket itself.”
Pragati K.B. is a reporter for The Times based in New Delhi, covering news from across India.
The post With a Snub on a Cricket Field, India-Pakistan Tensions Hit New Pitch appeared first on New York Times.
