Cricket Diplomacy...........!!!

Sports minister M.S. Gill’s statement on the Indian cricket team’s scheduled tour of Pakistan in January makes the government’s thinking clear."Is it possible for one team to arrive in Mumbai and indulge in mass murder, and have another team go and play cricket in the winter afternoon sun at Lahore"? The time cannot be conducive for the use of cricket diplomacy to mend fences with Pakistan when the nation is still boiling over the terrorist attack on Mumbai by perpetrators from across the border.However valid the argument that sports and politics should not mix,the logic is defeated by the fact that no normal sport is possible in such abnormal times.Cricket,which has often played out its role as a confidence-building measure between neighbours,must take a back seat for the time being,while India wages its rightful war against acts of terror clearly carried out on its soil by people of other nationalities.................&................we must not forget that cricket,at all times,must be subservient to the national interest.