Pakistan-Bangladesh cricket series
The above series has come in the court of a politician after facing trouble in the court of cricket bureaucracy. I was so shocked to listen to the minister for sports at prime time news cast on Channel-i. If I am not wrong, the minister was more keen to plan for the protection of the Pakistani players, of course we will do at an appropriate time, than putting due weight to the security of thousands of young men and women who might be allured to attend the proposed cricket match. The proposed date of arrival and possible date of curtailed matches seem to be an wild idea of a few cricket organisers and policy makers.
I hope the sports minister has heard the prime minister while she was addressing an audience at the Engineering Institute. According to the prime minister, the national security and public safety are still under threat from unknown enemy quarters. How come her sports minister can think to bring the Pakistani team on March 25, a black day in our history, and arrange the matches pushing the security of cricket lovers at stake in this critical and uncertain security atmosphere ? Moreover, the country is mourning the deaths of the innocent on-duty patriotic soldiers. The nation is awaiting the trail of the killers, and not any international cricket match. We need not be over enthusiastic to show normalcy by arranging international cricket matches at this stage. Do not be worried, things will be normal in the normal process shortly, God willing.
I only hope that our cricket board and the sports minister would kindly stop thinking about the Pak-Bangladesh cricket match and spend their time and efforts for organising local level internal sports game in Dhaka and outside to gradually cope with the national grief and security of the people and game participants. I think it is time for the cabinet to take a look at it and give a final decision to stop the bureaucratic game in cricket. Pakistan definitely needs our support to survive in the international cricket arena, but we need not go further and take any irrational decision without keeping in mind our own national security and safety issues.
I only hope the cricket lovers would not misunderstand my stand. I also love cricket. I would advice the organizers to kindly coordinate their thinking with the PMO and the home ministry to fix any new dates for the series. Be transparent and tell the full story why it is so urgent to organise the series now in March, why not at an appropriate time later ?
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