India vs Pakistan World T20 match under cloud amidst security concerns

The much-anticipated, the much-awaited high-voltage India-Pakistan T20 clash in the upcoming T20 World Cup is under tenebrous clouds at the moment. The match scheduled to be played at Dharamsala on March 19th has hit a roadblock as the Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh wrote to the Home Ministry mentioning the fact they are unable to provide adequate security for the match.

The state should not play politics: Anurag Thakur

Reacting to that, the Board Secretary Mr. Anurag Thakur has said that the state should not ‘play politics’. Thakur, who is also the Member of the Parliament for Bharatiya Janata Party, clearly told the reporters, “The venues of the World Cup matches were decided one year ago, the allotment of matches was decided six months ago. People all over have made bookings and it is not fair to give such statements at the last minute."

He also added, “The Congress-led state government is clearly playing politics. Hundreds of Pakistani athletes were given security during the South Asian Games in Assam, why can't the Himachal government do the same.” Thakur feared that these sort of incidents give credence to the Pakistani claims that the security threat looms large over their team which is not right for India’s growing image.

The Himachal Pradesh Government have already asked BCCI either to cancel the proposed match or to shift the venue. The president of the Himachal Pradesh Congress Community Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said that Kangra is home to a large number of soldiers, including Kargil War heroes like captain Vikram Batra and captain Saurabh Kalia and a war memorial is located close to the Dharamsala stadium. According to him, hosting Pakistan at Dharamsala would heart the sentiments of the families of the martyrs.

Local agitation against the match

Meanwhile, the Himachal Pradesh ex-servicemen league has been quite vocal about their protest against the match and they have written a letter to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to call off the game and they also warned that over one lakh ex-servicemen would launch an agitation to prevent the Pakistani team from entering Dharamsala.

President of the league Vijay Singh Mankotia asked, “When the Indo-Pak talks can be cancelled after the terror attack (Pathankot), why not the cricket match.”

The fate of the match

So it is quite obvious that sentiments flowing around Dharamsala are not looking ideal and issues other than cricket are gaining an upper hand over the game itself. There is none denying the fact that whatever happened at Pathankot was shambolic and painful.

But there is no point in involving cricket into all of these. People from both the nations love to see their countries battling it out on the playground, not on the war fronts. It will be interesting to see what happens to the fate of this much-anticipated clash.