A spat over cricket has sparked diplomatic mudslinging between India and Pakistan in the latest setback to efforts to improve relations between the two nuclear rivals, at loggerheads since the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
An auction of players at the Indian Premier League (IPL), the world’s richest cricket tournament, ended with no bids for 11 Pakistanis this week amid fears Indian teams could have visa problems for the cricketers.
Pakistan, always sensitive to any hint of a snub by its neighbor, was furious. Some of the Pakistani players who failed to get a bid from the Indian sides are considered world class cricketers, such as all-rounder Shahid Afridi.
Indian TV stations aired pictures of straw effigies of IPL chief Lalit Modi burning on Pakistani streets yesterday.
“I want to make it clear that whether it is India or any other country in the world, their citizens would have to face [the] same behavior as meted out to our people,” Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik was quoted by Pakistan’s state-run APP news agency as saying on Wednesday.
The Indian government dismissed Pakistan’s concerns.
“The government has nothing to do with the IPL,” Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna said yesterday. “So Pakistan will have to draw that line between where government of India is connected, where government of India is an actor.”
The deterioration in relations comes at a bad time for the region. India’s and Pakistan’s foreign ministers are both due to attend a meeting in London next week where leading Western powers will focus on a new plan for Afghanistan.
“The IPL gives Pakistan an additional issue to prepare its ground that India is unfriendly, and such things will vitiate the atmosphere [of the London meeting],” said B.G. Verghese, a professor with the New Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research.
Cricket has often been a source of strengthening ties.
In the past, politicians from both sides have turned to cricket to reduce tension and tried to boost cultural links in what experts have called “Track-II Diplomacy” at times of intractable diplomatic deadlocks.
“The IPL saga brings home the fact that a lack of progress on political dialogue will cast a shadow on areas where we have done relatively well like culture and sports,” said Lalit Mansingh, India’s former foreign secretary.
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