January 15 , 2010

Vision and Division

 

One of the few unifying joys which bring people together on one platform has been sport, especially so in an environment of division and disagreement. It has been true in Pakistan. And it proved true in a racially-divided South Africa when Nelson Mandela took over as President after being imprisoned for 27 years. Mandela understood the power of sport to instill a sense of common agreement and bandage wounds.

Based on historical events, the new movie, “Invictus,” depicts how Mandela surprised the fearful white minority with his generosity by openly supporting the white-dominated South African rugby team, as a rallying point to infuse a broader national spirit to a racially polarized country, thereby inspiring South Africa to win the 1995 Rugby World Cup.

In his 1963 landmark book, “Beyond a Boundary”, CLR James (1901-1989), one of the most influential Caribbean thinkers, reflected on the phenomenal effect that cricket had in helping forge a sense of identity, pride, and coherence to a motley collection of former British colonial territories and islands that joined together under the banner of West Indies to play Test cricket. It is a study in sociology of cricket’s impact in the Caribbean beyond the game itself.

Hector Bolitho, the biographer of the Quaid, mentioned in the 1954 book, “Jinnah, Creator of Pakistan”, how the young M.A. Jinnah, returning from his law studies in England, discouraged the children in his neighborhood from playing marbles squatting in the dirt, gifting them with a bat and ball he brought along from London and urging them instead to stand up and play cricket. Pakistan’s subsequent sporting triumphs in its first 50 years bear witness to the foresight of the Quaid. The sporting decline since then has run parallel with the slump in national self-belief and self-esteem.

The World Cup Twenty20 triumph by Pakistan at Lord’s was greeted as a bridge of hope six months ago by a conflict-ridden nation. In a joy-starved society, this pride in achievement was a morale booster, dispersing momentarily the clouds of depression.

The state of sports reflects the overall lowering of standards. The results are self-explanatory. A noted coach once said: “You are what your record says you are.”

China understood the political and cultural significance of sports when it showcased its emerging economic power through the successful hosting of the Beijing Olympics of 2008.

During a time of rising Cold War tensions, Americans were overjoyed when the US ice hockey team, on its path to bag the gold medal, beat the USSR in the Winter Olympics of 1980 at Lake Placid, New York. Their 4–3 defeat of the hot-favorite Soviet team, was hailed as the “Miracle on Ice” in the US media.

What needs to be shunned is the vicious and immature nationalism seen during the World Cup soccer qualifying contests between Algeria and Egypt which sparked street rioting, tarnishing ties between the two nations.

A setup that has abandoned moral judgment is unlikely to restore the faded luster of Pakistani sport. The status quo has to change.

The distinguished English off-spinner and former Surrey captain, Pat Pocock, in his acclaimed autobiography, “Percy”, paid a stirring tribute to the ethos of the sports-loving public when describing his experience of playing in Pakistan:

“Ordinary Pakistanis loved their cricket and came to our matches in their tens of thousands. … On a bumpy road, sixty miles outside Lahore, Derek Underwood’s bag, containing all his kit bounced from the roof of our bus. A lorry driver spotted it by the side of the road, picked it up, drove to Lahore, and tracked down the England hotel, where he handed in the bag. Now in that year of 1969, the whole of Underwood’s kit would have fetched perhaps three times that lorry driver’s annual salary. The thought never seemed to have crossed the man’s mind. … Pakistan not only suffered some appalling problems … it also enjoyed some admirable standards.”

For its part, the sports hierarchy in Pakistan continues to let down the public by displaying appalling standards.

In a nation hungry for a shared vision, there is more division and division.