Cricket and Conflict!

Apart from having identical letters of the English alphabet at the beginning and the end, Cricket and Conflict have a lot in common. Or should I say they have had a very interesting relationship, here in Kashmir. We use almost identical terms for a cricket match and for a conflict situation. A batsman runs himself out while as a Surakhsa karmi runs out of ammunition. Others terms include fightback (by a losing side), encounter (between two teams), victim (of a bowler or a bullet/pellet/pepper gas), boundary (of a country or a stadium), score (of the runs or the injured), follow on (of the innings or of the ‘story’ by media). Owing to this interrelated lingo, I sometimes get confused whether I am reading the sports page or the front page of the newspaper. And I wonder, is it the ‘conflictisation’ of cricket or the ‘cricketisation’ of the conflict? I’ll go for the later!

All through my life, I have been watching boys (and men) play cricket on link roads and the inter-district roads throughout Kashmir on the conflict days. And conflict days are those when people wear the conflict on their sleeves rather than keeping it in their hearts – the days of Curfew, Hartals and other related ingredients of the conflict! So much so that a friend of mine wonders, “given the frequency of hartals and curfews in Kashmir it should have produced a lot of world class cricketers by now!” True that because when we play cricket on a metalled road (or that with potholes!) we can learn cricket better than anyone else. Such a ‘pitch’ has all those ingredients which usually pose a problem to Indian cricketers/players. Their batsmen can’t score on hard and bouncy surface. Their bowlers can’t take wickets on such surfaces. So, such ‘pitches’ or roads do qualify as a moment to think over, for the Indian ‘team’ – be it a cricket match at the WACA pitch in Australia or one of those pitched battles in the by lanes of Kashmir! 

Usually, it is a cricket match which decides which way of the conflict you stand, in Kashmir. As it happened, a goodwill General sensed the nabz of Kashmiris right and came up with an idea.  This goodwill army man delved on the idea of Premier Leauge-ising the Kashmiri Cricket. Hence, the Kashmir Cricket League was born. As a result this goodwill General, who happened to have a well receptive Muslim name, was seen more in Cricket grounds, cultural programs and flagging off wattan ki saer programs than in war room meetings!  It was supposed to be an attempt to bring the Kashmiri youth to the ‘mainstream’ – as if they were flowing in some wrong stream of Jehlum (towards Pakistan?)! It was an attempt to take the youth off the roads – where they were either engaged in cricket or stone-bullet (or stone-pellet) chor-police! Well, it did have a good result – Parvez Rasool, who played for the Anantnag Arsenals in the Kashmir Premier League went on to play for India A, BCCI President’s XI and also played alongside Yuvraj Singh for North Zone in Deodhar Trophy. And according to some ‘sources’ he may be ‘fast-tracked’ into the Indian team! This – apparently to cricketise the loci standi of the youth about the conflict!

But, there are always some repercussions to devious ideas. Only recently there was a ‘fightback’ from the apparently losing side – they claimed 5 wickets in quick succession before valiantly running themselves out! They even had a hashtag on twitter for this fightback - #KashmirFightsBack – as if it really were a test match going on.  Hence, television diarrhoeics like Goswami were forced to follow on (on the story!). As I said Cricket and Conflict have a very interesting relationship here.

Now, the goodwill Generals may well be ruing the fact that they inculcated the spirit of cricket in the jawans (jawans = youth, or otherwise!) so much so that they see a cricketer in everyone with a kit bag and a track-suit. In the process they even forget to save their own wickets!

Or, who knows, maybe they are staring at an innings defeat!

This write-up first appeared in the March 19 2013 edition of Kashmir Reader.

Kab waqt hamara woh aayega... | Urdu

Kab waqt hamara woh aayega, 
Jab takht giraye'n jayenge! 

Jab rang laye lahu shaheedoo'n ka, 
Jab qubool ho aahe'n maoo'n ki! 

Jab satta ke galiyaroo'n se boo aaye insaaf ki, 
Jab Hakim ke darbaar se loogu'n ko insaaf mile! 

Jab maaoo'n ko insaaf miley, 
Jab behnoo'n ko izzat miley! 

Jab bevaoo'n ko hum-dilli mile, 
Jab yateemoo'n ko shafqat mile! 

Jab kisi ke naam par na ho kahein par khoon-rezi, 
Jab kisi ke khoon ka na ho koi insaan pyasaa! 

Kab waqt hamara woh aayega, 
Jab takht giraye'n jayenge!

Courage it takes...

Courage it takes to live under oppression,

Courage it takes to live under occupation,

Courage it takes to stand against tyranny,

Courage it takes to stand for the oppressed,

Courage it takes to see the funeral of a son,

Courage it takes to see the cold gleam of a father,

Courage it takes to attend the funeral without a tear,

Courage it takes to say, "My son is a blessed martyr",

Courage it takes to bear the tears of a mother,

Courage it takes to bear the sobs of a sister,

Courage it takes to get killed without a word being told,

Courage it takes to see injustice, but still with a hope,

Courage it takes to even see in the eyes of the martyrs,

Courage it will take to even remember the martyrs!

"Aes te tcha Zaelim?" - Are we too, oppressors?

It is one of those rare Fridays when nothing bloody happened in Pakistan, only a few people died in Syria (not enough to get 'featured' in news) and none of the newspapers published anything about the continuing plight of the Rohingya!

Irfan and Faizan have just deboarded the school bus and are strolling back to their respective home a few metres away from the bus-stop! As they pass by the Martyr's graveyard;

Irfan: "How many graves are there in Shaheed Mazaar?".

Faizan: "I dont know but two graves are empty! We are getting late for Jumah Namaaz!"

Faizan: "We have a cricket match at 3 O'clock. I'll meet you after Namaaz. When do you complete it, ours gets completed by 2:30".

Irfan: "I'll be back from Imambara by then! I'll meet you at the ground!"

Nowhatta Greens Vs Rainawari Stars

Rainawari Stars win the toss and elect to bat first. They go on to score 134 for the loss of 5 wickets in 20 overs.

Nowhatta Greens need 135 to win. Faizan will write down the score on that SS Scorebook with his Reynoldspen. The batting order has already been written, on the scorebook. Mohammad Irfan will come in at No. 7 and Faizan Ali, being an allrounder, will follow in at No. 8. Faizan stations himself at the square leg position near the umpire and scribbles the runs on the scorebook. Irfan sits besides Faizan amid a lowly protest by the players of the Rainawari Stars  who insist that the Scorer  should sit there alone!

Five overs have passed and Rainawari Stars players ask for the scores. Faizan announces, "27 for 2"!

Faizan: "Do you know? It is Pulwama Chalo on Monday."

Irfan: "I know. These oppressors have killed another young man!"

Faizan: "Yem che saeeri Zaelim!" (They are all oppressors!)

Irfan: "Khudai karin Raham!" (May Allah have mercy!)

Faizan: "Irfan, Do you know? Pakistan won the T-20 match vs South Africa! Hafeez scored 92 runs before getting run-out!"

Irfan: "I dont get to watch cricket these days, at home. Abu always watches Geo News, Al Jazeera, Press TV. I couldn't even watch the WWE Royal Rumble on Thursday!"

Faizan: "Natte kus chu wutchaan. Be chus wutchaan score espncricinfo peath!" (You think i watched the whole match? I check the scores from Cricinfo only!)

Irfan: "So, you too are fed up with the news, like me? Somewhere, it is the genocide of one community and somewhere else, it is of the other!"

Faizan: "God knows what is in store. Every Friday we have to see news from Pakistan with ever increasing numbers of killings."

Irfan: "And then there is war in Syria as well. People are dying in thousands there!"

Faizan: "Preth kunni jai che sirf Musalmaan maraan! Khabar yem Zaelim koune maraan kanh?" (Everywhere it is Muslims who are getting killed. Why doesn't anyone among the oppressors die?)

Irfan: "Aes te tchi  naa Zaelim! Yemis ne insaan sund aar yeyi temis wanov zaelimie" (We are oppressors too! One who has no compassion for fellow human being IS an oppressor!)

Faizan: "Aes te tcha Zaelim?" (Are we too, oppressors?)

Down and Dusted - HOPE!

Irfan: "Faizan! We require 76 to win in just 10 overs. It is very difficult!"

Faizan: "Get your pads on. We just need to understand each other while batting and running between the wickets. See how we lost 2 quick wickets to run-outs only due misunderstanding."

Irfan: "You are right. We just need a partnership to win."

Faizan comes to the crease with Greens still needing 56 to win from 7 overs, with 6 wickets down. Armed with his BSM bat which he has bought last spring from Sangam, he walks upto Irfan at the non-strikers end and says, "We shall overcome. We just need a partnership! We just need to understand each other. We just need to tolerate the mistakes and correct each other in a sensible way!"

"After 19 overs, Nowhatta Greens are 128 for the loss of six wickets. Mohammad Irfan is on strike, playing on 29 and Faizan Ali is batting on 24", the scorer announces.

Irfan misses the first two balls and takes a single on the 3rd ball.

Faizan hits a six on the 4th ball and the Greens win, with Mohammad Irfan and Faizan Ali contributing 30 runs each.

Picture © Getty Images
P.S: Isn't a game of cricket a lesson for us. Isn't tolerance and mutual understanding need of the hour? Can't we just consider each other as humans, if not anything else? Or do we waste the whole life killing each other while as the enemies make partnerships to win over us!