One of the most heated and ongoing debates across the planet has been the dividing line between sports and politics. Though most of the major sports governing bodies such as Fifa, ICC and the IOC preclude government interference in local sports organisations this has not deterred politicians from trying to meddle in team selections, tours and even the choice of emblems.
Ordinarily this issue gets highlighted when a cricket or rugby team is about to tour countries like Zimbabwe (sanctions) or Pakistan (security issues). Though most sports people claim that politics should have no place in sport, politicians argue that normal sporting ties cannot exist in an abnormal society.
The terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team bus in Lahore has finally destroyed the argument that sports and politics should be kept totally separate. It is unfortunately a luxury that can no longer be justified. In future, in order to decide whether a tour can take place or not any number of political and other factors are going to have to be weighed up before the kit bags are packed.
As cricket lovers will know tours to Pakistan have been turned down by Australia, South Africa and India based upon security concerns. It even led to the cancellation of the ICC tournament last October. As a result Sri Lanka, with the best intentions, agreed to play peacemaker and took India’s place. The result has been the devastation of the Sri Lankan test team with a number of players wounded and Pakistan’s hopes of future tours being wiped out for at least the next 5 to 10 years.
Far worse for all sports lovers is the fact that though it has always been at the back of most people’s minds that terrorists might attack stadiums, the chances of it actually happening were adjudged to be remote because sport is very popular among the masses. As such the murder of sports heroes would be a severe case of terrorists shooting themselves in the foot and reducing their popularity dramatically. Yesterday those theories died the same death as the others cited above.
Just when we were starting to believe that there are some things that even extremists won’t do, we discover that the only reason they haven’t done them yet, is because either they haven’t thought of them or they just haven’t got around to them yet. Apparently nothing is sacred.
Amid the recriminations and accusations that are going to start flying over the next few weeks and months try and spare a thought for those who are going to be making the decisions on whether tours should take place or not in the future. As an example try and imagine how those who decided on the Sri Lankan tour arrived at their decision. This tour took place against the backdrop of a Pakistan that looks something like this:
- Less than a year after Pakistan’s return to civilian rule the country’s future seems to be wholly uncertain with a number of forces pulling in different directions.
- In the crucial province of Punjab, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz chief Nawaz Sharif is accusing president Asif Ali Zardari of being exactly the same as deposed military leader and former president Pervez Musharraf. He claims that the ruling Pakistan People’s Party and the president are behind the supreme court’s decision to declare the Sharif brothers — who are the opposition leaders — ineligible to contest elections. In Punjab, Zardari has declared the victory of Sharif’s younger brother Shahbaz in last year’s by-election null and void and replaced him as chief minister and the provincial government in the province with a governor. This is, to say the least, creating enormous tension between the parties.
- Though the Obama administration is still formulating its policies and goals in respect of Afghanistan and Pakistan, with one eye focused on the Taliban and al-Qaeda, its efforts received a major setback, as far as they are concerned, with the Taliban assuming control of vast areas of the Swat Valley, which is situated less than 161km from Islamabad. This means that a new safe haven some distance from the Afghanistan border has been created. This on top of the fact that there are accusations being levied against the Pakistan government that they are not doing enough to oppose extremists who are taking refuge in the area. With the US military launching attacks against insurgents into Pakistan from Afghanistan and the Pakistan military claiming violation of their airspace the relationship between the two has seen better days.
- Of course we also have to factor in the attack on Mumbai by Lashkar-e-taiba, an extremist group operating in Pakistan. They were formed in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan but have been redirected, and some say protected, by the military in order to take on the Indian army in respect of the disputed territory of Kashmir. It is noteworthy that the Pakistani government has accepted the group’s involvement in Mumbai and that the attacks were planned and launched from Pakistan. Within Pakistan, Zardari is considered by many to be too pro-West and not hard-line enough on India. As with Musharraf the debate remains over the military numbers deployed against the Taliban and area bordering Afghanistan as opposed to those dealing with the dispute with India over Kashmir.
In terms of the Sri Lankan attack early suggestions are that it bears all the hallmarks of Mumbai. Well-trained terrorists with information, indicates support from the military or Pakistani intelligence. According to police sources the team bus amended its route as a result of a warning received that an attack would be made on the tour bus. If that be so and is added to the fact that the terrorists were highly trained and were able to hit the bus from all four sides then the only conclusion you can draw is that inside information had to be available to the terrorists. It is inconceivable that an ambush could have been set from all 4 sides if the terrorists were searching for the bus and did not know the route.
If we then have regard to a Pakistani economy wherein financial collapse has only been averted through IMF intervention and assistance is being sought from the US against the backdrop described above then the situation becomes even more bleak and the future direction this is going to take somewhat more obscure. It is going to be difficult for the US to justify assisting Pakistan financially where Zardari is unable to give any assurances on the Taliban and incredibly seems more pre-occupied with running vendettas against the Sharif brothers than the myriad of other problems facing Pakistan right now.
We must of course factor in that Pakistan is now a nuclear power, which if governed by the Taliban, could make for a very “interesting” region and planet as well as the fact that the military might soon decide that they have seen enough and repeat the coups of days gone by.
If that is a brief overview of some of the problems facing Pakistan right now and in light of South Africa, Australia and India having declined to tour before, would you like to be the party responsible for having made the decision that Sri Lanka tour Pakistan?
The subcontinent is not safe. Bangladesh and India are the safest of the states (but avoid Kashmir), Sri Lanka has an ongoing civil war with the ruthless al-Qaeda supported Tamil Tiger separatists and the Islamic Repubic of Pakistan is simply a hotbed of islamic fundamentalist terror.
The ICC need to candidly admit this sad reality and allow nations to decline to tour on perceptions of poor security without them being ruinously fined. Or else visiting cricketers WILL be dying there in great numbers. Then it’s too late to say “we didn’t expect it”.
Lahore proves that murder MUST be expected.
Traps
You write “nothing is sacred”. On the radio people say “sport should be sacrosant” because “sport is a unifier”.
When did cricket become a religion?
If it is one, that might explain the attack.
The neo-Jihadists allow no other religion.
As you said Traps, I pity the people who decided to send the Sri Lankan cricket team into Pakistan.
Sorry Mike this has happened before. Nothing new here. Just a short memory.
This attack is just another facet of terrorism that this ANC run Government supports when they invite the known Pariah’s of the world to break bread be buddies. One section thereof took part in a worst act of a slaughter at the most sacred of sport events, the Olympic games.
Like the days when hijacking aircraft and holding passengers as prisoners was the vogue this worked just as well as it drew world press attention.
I thought that happened many decades ago. Hitler Germany, apartheid SA… Just been re-affirmed in Pakistan.
Jon I’ve been a member of PakPassion (Pakistani cricket messageboard) for about a year. They are the same as any cricket fans anywhere.
This was devestating for them as well. Hopefully Englands offer of being a temporary home will safeguard the game in Pakistan.
As South Africans we know what it’s like not to have tours.
As for the Sri Lankans they were just shell shocked. As everyone’s favourite second team it was awful to see those pictures on Sky last night.
Mike Atherton on Lahore :
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/cricket/article5839569.ece
Alas for this – extremism is becoming a worldwide threat to the planet and its peoples, not just sport. Women are vilified in many of these movements, further endangering us as they raise the children and educate them. As more and more women and girls are denied access to education by movements such as the Taliban, knowledge is put at risk. indeed it seems that the Taliban particularly wish a return to medieval times. Under these circumstances, we are truly facing annhilation.
Will WWIII start in Pakistan?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1158997/MICHAEL-BURLEIGH-Forget-Afghanistan-Iraq-World-War-III-start-Pakistan.html
Who attacked the Sri Lankan team?
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSISL250770
Zardari : Pakistan fight against terrorism relentless :
http://www.app.com.pk/en_/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=69886
Munich in 1972?
I think the lines between sport and politics have been erased a long time ago.
this attack on Sri Lanka’s unsuspecting Cricket team is tragic because of the deaths and because of the long term effect this will have internationally
Indeed, the line between sport and politics was never really there in the first place. Those who would like to separate sport and politics are merely protecting vested interests, either in promoting a profitable event or in quieting publicity over their human rights record (or both).
But it’s obvious that as soon as sportspeople represent their state on the track or field, their appearance there is a political phenomenon.
Sporting boycotts have often been used to effect good political change (especially so in the case of apartheid South Africa!). A sporting boycott of Pakistan would not only be pragmatic, it might even be moral. Sport — and the withholding of sport — should continue to be an avenue of political protest.
http://padthemadlad.wordpress.com/2009/03/04/why-not-mix-sport-and-politics/
Trapido openly pledges his support for the ANC/SACP alliance in the 2009 elections. It is therefor no surprise that Trapido writes in this piece that, after the Lahore attack, there is no further argument against politics being kept out of sport. If my understanding of Trapido is “correct” (as ANC/SACP hacks like to say), normal sporting cannot exist in an abnormal society and politicians should have the right/power to weigh up political “and other” factors to decide whether a sports tour can take place or not.
In peddling the ANC/SACP line of BIG GOVERNMENT through his advocacy of political interference in sport, Trapido matches the disdain with which the ANC/SACP treats the Constitution and the rights of citizens (as set out in the Bill of Rights). Contrary to what Trapido suggests, the Constitution guarantees the right of every citizen to freedom of movement: everyone has the right to leave or to enter the Republic. The irony is that Trapido uses the failure of a government to do its job (Pakistan guaranteed the safety of the visitors) to propagate even greater government powers over its citizens.
(continued)
Michael Trapido uses such sweet reasonableness in his argument for greater totalitarianism that one can almost place him as a crypto-communist. He uses the ploy of “assumption of guilt” by asking the reader: “would you like to be the party responsible for having made the decision that Sri Lanka tour Pakistan?” However, in the matter of the Lahore attack, any and all guilt lies with the radical Islamist shooters, and most definitely not with those that were the victims (including the relevant sporting bodies).
So Trapido, next time a South African tourist gets kidnapped or shot at in an unsafe tourist destination, share with us your thoughts on the right of politicians to decide for us where and if we can travel overseas. That is after all your constitutional right and the next step in your logic. And it is so, like, pre-1989 USSR.
Jon. you got to be absolutely naive to think that the Tamil Tigers are supported by Al-qaeeda. Al-qaeeda regard non-muslims as infidels thus will not support the tamil tigers. Your resoponse just shows your blatant Islamaphobia.Whilst the attacks must be condemned in the strongest possible terms, we should refrain from making elementary comparisons and statements that have absolutely no bearing on the issue at hand.
How can you write a serious article on sport and terror/politics and not even mention the Munchen Olympic massacre. Wake up terror has targetted sport for almost 40 year and politicians for much longer (Hitler and the Soviets) but the ruling elite/chattering classes in the West refuse to acknowledge it.
A suggested few rules:
- abolish all Govt. sports departments
- sport is soley run and administered by the internally elected sports bodies and conform in letter and spirit to the laws of the land – no race based sport bodies to be allowed
- no country flags/symbols/anthems allowed at any international sporting events.
- where ever a terror/sport attacks comes from that country is banned from all international sport for 10years minimum.
As you can see all useless chattering class solutions, as long as people/countries love and support sport politicians/terror sponsors will interfere.
Brent
Dear Mike,
Were you not yet born or were you asleep during the attacks on the Israeli team during the 1972 Munich Olympics?
If you want to understand the tragedy of the Tamils, and of how Africa’s independence collapsed, read “A Passage to Africa” by George Alagiah. His father was one of the few Tamils who was able to blackmail their Tamil family out of Sri-Lanka and get passports to leave – to Ghana, which they watched Nkrumah destroy in under a decade with his grandious “African Renaissance” ideals. Eventually his family got him to Britain for an education. He becaume a top reporter – and spent some time in SA as well.
A brilliant book – well worth reading.
Pakistan identifies Sri Lankan teams attackers :
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5854505.ece