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Let's not reduce cricketers to pawns: Rajdeep Sardesai's take on no-handshake row

I have always been a firm advocate of Indo-Pak cricket in the hope that sports can build bridges where politics cannot, no longer. The hope of sports as a bridge builder between two hostile neighbours has been dimmed in recent times.

The terror attack in Pahalgam and the complete lack of empathy shown by the Pakistani army state and, dare I say even more troubling, the incendiary remarks made by some former Pakistani players make it apparent that it could no longer be business as usual with Islamabad.

The Modi government made it clear that blood and water cannot flow together by putting the Indus water treaty on hold. How then can cricket and terror coexist? Last night's game only further shows how sport is only now an instrument for competitive jingoism.

When a game becomes a platform for war minus the shooting, when performative nationalism takes over. And when players cannot even show the minimum courtesy of shaking hands with each other, there is something horribly wrong.

Next time, either don't play cricket with Pakistan, or if you believe it's a compulsion, then gracefully accept conventions of sport, including a handshake.

Let's not reduce cricketers to pawns in a larger battle, only to cater to domestic constituencies looking to settle scores. Sports is expected, my friends, to bring out the best in us, not the worst.

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