It struck me while listening to Shoaib Akhtar, why not instruct the union sports minister and the BCCI to invite both Pak and New Zealand to come and play cricket on Indian soil?Dear friends, can you imagine how such an offer will set off an international political storm?
In the event that Pak refuses… and most probably PCB will refuse this, India can immediately afterwards invite Afghanistan to play in India. The point to remember is this: all cricket boards are packed with greedy administrators and given a chance, not a single cricketer or cricket administrator in the right senses will reject the offer of
a lucrative business partnership with BCCI. Now it all depends on India’s political clout to give shape to a new kind of diplomacy. So, let’s begin with looking at currents in geopolitics.
Look at the political reality that surrounds us: the entire SAARC region except India, Bangladesh and Bhutan are unstable. In a time like ours, can India create a situation where she can proclaim to be the new Mecca for peace? That’s the political pitch. But how does India stand to gain?
If it can be made to happen, then financially for the BCCI and economically for the nation as a whole, this proposal can be most beneficial. So, the challenge is this: can NaMo convert India into the world’s cricketing Mecca, and afterwards can he reconstruct the idea of India as the world’s new Mecca for peace? And if that’s within the realm of possibility, then the time is now to strike the iron! And BTW, it’s also time to kick some Babu-butts in the foreign ministry.
Come on friends, tell me how much you love this concept!
– Satish Sinnarkar
