India lost Vizag T20 ~ should India boycott WC 2019 or at least refuse to play Pak ??

At Vizag, India faltered from 80/3 in 10 overs to 126/7 – and it appeared as though Aussies would win hands down .. after 18 overs they required 16 off 12 – and Jasprit Bumrah bowled a great over – it was 0-1-0-1 and then he had Handscomb skying high and well taken by Dhoni and cleaned the leg stump of Coulter-Nile. But Umesh Yadav could not defend – as Jhye Richardson and Pat Cummins hit a four each – and ran like hares in between, winning off the last ball. Earlier, the teams observed homage before the start of the game for Pulawama killings.

Game of Cricket  is enjoyable but – should India boycott World Cup 2019 ? – or at least refuse to play against Pakistan, if the Govt decides so against the Nation that kindles terror .. .. some would speak about losing points in that game, some more would say ‘do not mix politics with sports’ – this certainly not politics but the interest of the Nation.  Remember Pak players were there in inaugural IPL in 2008 and an year later – they were banned – roof has not come down, in playing without Paki players in IPL.  

When Shahid Afridi went unsold, Pak and its COO Wasim Bari made a hue & cry.  Pak board Chairman Ijaz Butt expressed in 2010  - "It really does not bother us; what difference does it make to us if our players don't play in the IPL this season? They didn't play in the last season as well."  .. then Pakistan's sports minister Aijaz Hussain Jakhrani  said - "Pakistanis must boycott IPL matches on television, ban the use of Indian products and stop watching Indian films featuring Bollywood stars who are IPL franchisees till an official apology is received from the Indian government and the IPL organisers." IPL 2019 is about to start, yet there is no Pak players – it has not harmed India or Cricket in any manner.

In Jan 1996, a truck (42-6452) containing about 440 pounds of high explosives crashed through the main gate of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, in Colombo, a seaside high-rise which managed most of the financial business of the country. As gunmen traded fire with security guards, the suicide bomber in the lorry detonated the massive bomb, which tore through the bank and damaged eight other buildings nearby.  It was gruesome .. .. .. and had its impact on Cricket !!!

Aaron Finch, the Australia captain, chose  to bowl first in the first T20I in Visakhapatnam. India captain Virat Kohli said he would have liked to bowl as well.  India picked three spinners - the allrounder Krunal Pandya and a pair of legspinners in Yuzvendra Chahal and Mayank Markande, making  his international debut. They also gave KL Rahul some game time at the top of the order, resting Shikhar Dhawan in order to do so. Australia, handed a T20I debut to Peter Handscomb.  They went in with an attack featuring as many as four frontline quicks in Pat Cummins, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Jhye Richardson and Jason Behrendorff, and the legspinner Adam Zampa. The fast bowlers kept their nerves scoring the required 14 off the last Umesh Yadav over.

The 1996 World Cup was the last time the tournament was managed by the host country and not the ICC.  In 1999 it was in England – and it proved to be more a marketing show than the game itself as the England captain Alec Stewart and his team-mates Graeme Hick and Adam Hollioake stood around the World Cup trophy posing for photographs with the supermodel Caprice, chosen as one of the cricket ambassadors during the tournament, to promote the sport. Caprice, flicking her long blonde hair out of her eyes, even tried bowling a few overs.  Caprice had the honour of modelling the hosts' blue uniform - far removed from the sport's traditional image of white flannels and sleepy village greens.  She admitted she did not know which team are defending champions - Sri Lanka. And her presence raised some eyebrows at Lord's, the home of cricket, where members confine talk of statistics to overs, runs and maidens of a different kind.

Carl Lewis too would have a different story to tell !  ~  Frederick Carlton "Carl" Lewis  won nine Olympic gold medals, one Olympic silver medal, and 10 World Championships medals, including eight gold. His career spanned from 1979 to 1996, when he last won an Olympic event. He is one of only three Olympic athletes who won a gold medal in the same individual event in four consecutive Olympic Games.  Not many would know or remember that he could easily have added one more Olympics to that, if not for his Govt decision (would one call it political stamping Sports !)

Lewis was a dominant sprinter and long jumper who topped the world rankings in the 100 m, 200 m and long jump events frequently from 1981 to the early 1990s. He set world records in the 100 m, 4 × 100 m and 4 × 200 m relays, while his world record in the indoor long jump has stood since 1984. His 65 consecutive victories in the long jump achieved over a span of 10 years is one of the sport's longest undefeated streaks. After retiring from his athletics career, Lewis became an actor and has appeared in a number of films. In 2011, he attempted to run for a seat as a Democrat in the New Jersey Senate, but was removed from the ballot due to the state's residency requirement.

Comparisons were beginning to be made with Jesse Owens, who dominated sprint and long jump events in the 1930s. Lewis qualified for the American team for the 1980 Olympics in the long jump and as a member of the 4 × 100 m relay team. The Olympic boycott precluded Lewis from competing in Moscow; he instead participated in the Liberty Bell Classic in July 1980, which was an alternate meet for boycotting nations. He jumped 7.77 m (25 ft 5 3⁄4 in) for a bronze medal, and the American 4 × 100 m relay team won gold with a time of 38.61s. 

In 1980, President Jimmy Carter informed some 160 U.S. athletes and coaches that the United States would boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow in response to the Dec 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. It marked the first and only time the United States boycotted the Olympics. The presidential announcement came after the Soviet Union failed to comply with Carter’s Feb. 20, 1980, deadline to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. The Soviets had invaded Afghanistan in 1979 to bolster the country’s pro-Soviet regime against Islamic insurgents. “I can’t say at this moment what other nations will not go … “ the president told the athletes who had assembled at the White House. But, he added, “ours will not go. I say that not with any equivocation; the decision has been made. The American people are convinced that we should not go … The Congress has voted overwhelmingly, almost unanimously, which is a very rare thing, that we will not go. And I can tell you that many of our major allies, particularly those democratic countries who believe in freedom, will not go.

“I understand how you feel, and I thought about it a lot as we approached this moment, when I would have to stand here in front of fine young Americans and dedicated coaches, who have labored sometimes for more than 10 years ... to become among the finest athletes in the world, knowing what the Olympics mean to you, to know that you would be disappointed. It’s not a pleasant time for me.” Carter added.  Eighty nations were represented at the Moscow Games — the smallest number since 1956. Canada, West Germany, and Japan joined the United States in boycotting the games. But Carter failed to persuade Britain, France, Greece and Australia to also observe the boycott. When an international coalition suggested that the boycotting nations send athletes to compete under a neutral Olympic banner, Carter threatened to revoke the passport of any U.S. athlete who attempted to do so. His decision affected not only athletes, but also corporate advertisers and broadcasters such as NBC.  The Soviet Union and 13 of its allies retaliated by boycotting the 1984 Olympic Summer Games in Los Angeles.

Though the  Olympic Games is the biggest  international multi-sport event, it has seen as many as 7 boycotts,  all of the Summer Olympics. The first boycott occurred at the 1936 Summer Olympics and the most recent was at the 1988 Summer Olympics. Rhodesia is the only country which has been prevented from entering, when its invitation to the 1972 Summer Olympics was withdrawn by the International Olympic Committee, following protests by other African countries.

Concluding with Cricket, in 1996 after that bombing in Colombo, referred to at the start, at least two teams forfeited their games, without playing in Sri Lanka.  Aussie  coach Bobby Simpson asked: 'Who wants to be around when bombs are going off?' But the World Cup organising committee, Pilcom, was unsympathetic to any requests to reschedule matches. Australia and the West Indies refused to send their teams to Sri Lanka  - on 17.2 Australia forfeited their match to Sri Lanka, and on 26.2 West Indies too forfeited their game enabling an easy passage to Sri Lanka, who went to win the World Cup in 1996.

So, don’t say as if ‘boycotting or refusing to play a team’ is new – it has happened earlier and if Pak continues to abet terrorism, there is no point in having any relations including any Sports. Stop terror, Save Nation – any game is of lesser significance than the Nation.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

24^th Feb 2019.