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'No cricket with Pakistan'

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) today echoed similar feelings on sports links with Pakistan, like the one announced yesterday by former captain Kapil Dev Nikhanj.

Kapil, after visiting the injured jawans in the war-torn area of Kargil, was of firm opinion that India should severe all sporting connections with Pakistan and, to start with, immediately announce the cancellation of the annual Sahara Cup one-day championship, played in Toronto, Canada, between the two countries.

Today, BCCI president Raj Singh Dungarpur, under whose leadership Indo-Pak Test cricket relations resumed after a gap of almost ten years early this year at home, termed Kapil's call as very rationale and worthy of discussion at BCCI's forthcoming working committee meeting.

Raj Singh, a staunch nationalist, was keen to address the situation arising from the cruel, warlike atmosphere inflicted on India by Pakistan. This new line of thought once again puts a cloud over the Sahara Cup, sponsored by an Indian company and ironically termed as the Friendship Cup.

Last year, the whole nation was divided over BCCI's stand to split the Indian team in two so that the country could be represented at the inaugural Commonwealth Games one-day championship and also honour the committment of playing in the Sahara Cup, which was held simultaneously.

The move, apart from some bad blood letting between Raj Singh and Indian Olympic Association chief Suresh Kalmadi, backfired and both teams returned empty-handed.

Meanwhile, Kapil's plea was whole-heartedly supported by former Test players Polly Umrigar, Gulabrai Ramchand and Naren Tamhane. However, former all-rounder Bapu Nadkarni called it a "sentimental outburst".

Umrigar, wth carefully selected words, said Kapil had a point, and it would not be advisable to carry on sports relations even if the game is played in a neutral country.

Ramchand, under whose captaincy India defeated Richie Benaud's Aussies in the Kanpur Test in the fifties, emphatically replied, "No for cricket with Pakistan."

He said the neighbours had betrayed the friendly hand extended by Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, and there was no sense in the BCCI trying to carry on cricket with war mongers.

"Let Pakistan first restore peace on Indian terms and then only we should talk of cricket," he concluded.

Tamhane, still rated much higher as a wicket-keeper than the flashy Farokh Engineer and Budhi Kunderan, agreed that the air was not conducive for any sport with Pakistan. Like Umrigar and Ramchand, Tamhane, who has now fully recovered from a life-threatening ailment, also had his heart with the Indian jawans.

Nadkarni, however, querried why India did not withdraw from the World Cup and refuse to play against Pakistan when the Kargil issue had started raging.

"Is it really a war that we should draw any conclusions," he asked.

Nadkarni, who in his days could land a ball on a handkerchief near the batsman's crease ten times out of ten, said he could understand why Kapil was disturbed after returning from the front.

"I would have probably reacted in the same sentimental way," he said.

UNI