New Delhi: India and Pakistan’s refusal to shake hands during their Asia Cup cricket matches bent the code of the so-called “gentleman’s game”, as sport once again served as a proxy battlefield.<\/p>\n
\t The tournament marks the first meeting between the nuclear-armed neighbours since their armies clashed in May — a four-day exchange of artillery, drones and missiles that killed more than 70 people.<\/p>\n
\t The sporting rivals do not play bilateral matches, meeting only at neutral venues during international tournaments.<\/p>\n
\t The handshake snub is the latest example of how cricket mirrors politics between the two countries.<\/p>\n
Eyes down<\/p>\n
\t The cricket-mad neighbours have already met twice in the Asia Cup T20 tournament this month, played in the United Arab Emirates as a neutral venue.<\/p>\n
\t On September 14, India captain Suryakumar Yadav said his refusal to shake hands with his Pakistani counterpart was “aligned with the government” — a move Pakistan said had “disappointed” them.<\/p>\n
\t When they met again on September 21, neither side offered the traditional handshake. Both skippers kept their eyes and hands down after the toss.<\/p>\n
\t The hostility did not stop there. Pakistan’s Fakhar Zaman celebrated his half-century by using his bat like a gun, while his teammate Haris Rauf taunted the crowd by seemingly mimicking a plane crashing, an apparent reference to the Indian fighter jets that Pakistan said they shot down in May.<\/p>\n
India won both games.<\/p>\n
\t If both sides progress, they may meet in the September 28 final — and again in October when India co-hosts the Women’s World Cup, with that game played in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n
‘Cricket for peace’<\/p>\n
\t A love of cricket is one thing the two sides can agree on.<\/p>\n
\t In 1987, Pakistan’s then military ruler Ziaul Haq stunned India with a surprise visit to a Test match in Jaipur.<\/p>\n
\t The hastily arranged trip, dubbed “cricket for peace”, helped defuse a tense border standoff and saw Zia charm both fans and Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.<\/p>\n
\t In 2005, a match in New Delhi brought Pakistan’s then president Pervez Musharraf face-to-face with Indian leader Manmohan Singh.<\/p>\n
Pitch gardening<\/p>\n
\t In 1991, spade-wielding activists from India’s Hindu right-wing Shiv Sena party dug up the pitch at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium to prevent Pakistan’s cricket tour.<\/p>\n
\t The scheduled one-day series was cancelled.<\/p>\n
\t Security fears forced Pakistan to call off two more tours in 1993 and 1994 before returning for the 1996 World Cup.<\/p>\n
\t In 1999, Shiv Sena struck again, damaging the pitch at New Delhi’s Feroz Shah Kotla stadium ahead of a Test match, but authorities repaired it in time.<\/p>\n
Fans evicted<\/p>\n
\t A 1999 Test in Kolkata’s Eden Gardens descended into chaos after India’s Sachin Tendulkar was controversially run out following a collision with Pakistan’s Shoaib Akhtar.<\/p>\n
\t Crowds erupted, chanting “cheat, cheat” and hurled water bottles at Akhtar, forcing officials to halt play.<\/p>\n
\t Tendulkar’s pleas failed to calm the stands, thousands of fans were evicted, and Pakistan sealed victory in front of empty stands.<\/p>\n
Pakistan ban<\/p>\n
\t Pakistani stars were a major draw in the Indian Premier League’s 2008 debut season, with Sohail Tanvir topping the wicket charts.<\/p>\n
\t But after the Mumbai terror attacks that same year, carried out by Pakistan-based militants, Indian authorities barred players from across the border.<\/p>\n
\t The ban remains in place, depriving Pakistan cricketers of the chance to play in the world’s most lucrative T20 league.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Delhi: India and Pakistan’s refusal to shake hands during their Asia Cup cricket matches bent the code…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[98155,64,63,740,98900,105982,69216,85],"class_list":["post-160878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-asia-cup-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-india-pakistan-cricket","tag-india-pakistan-match","tag-india-pakistan-tensions","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}