Sports have always been known to transcend boundaries and act as a medium to bring people together. On the occasion of the 67th Republic Day celebrations in India, a story has emerged that shows the true power of ‘The Gentleman’s Game’ in a nation of millions of crazy fans.
The state of Jammu & Kashmir and especially the capital city of Srinagar has time and again been a witness to stone pelting between the police and the local youth who view the latter with mistrust.
The old Srinagar city, also known as Downtown, is known to be a separatist stronghold and seen many violent clashes between the two groups. On Monday, the scenes were completely different as they played out a friendly match of cricket at a local playground in Nowhatta, a place that is synonymous with fights, much to the amusement of the large crowd that assembled to watch the cricket action.
The police team lost but the result is not important
The police team were led by Shafqat Hussain Bhat, the Superintendent of Police (North city), who, despite having a back problem, marshalled the Khaki-clad cops against a team of enthusiastic youngsters. Not surprisingly the police team were soundly beaten, but as Bhat would go on to say, the result was never going to be important.
"We lost the match but we are still the winners. We did not play to win but we played to bring the youth together to create camaraderie between us and them", Bhat told DNA. “We invited them (youth) and they readily agreed to play. We feel satisfied that we have played the match. It clears so many misconceptions. Some youth have a different image about police. Some think whether we can smile too. But when we are together in ground entire gamut changes and sportsmanship reigns."
And if you thought the contest was going to be a one-off affair, think again. Buoyed by the success of the event, Bhat is planning to conduct more such matches in the future, especially on Fridays, as it is usually on those afternoons after the prayers that clashes seem to erupt on a disturbing basis.
"Cricket matches will continue. We want to hold a match on Friday afternoon. We want to see how it pans out", said Bhat.
One certainly hopes that the experiment bears fruition in bringing peace to the valley.
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