Given the nationwide love for the game, India should play cricket anywhere and everywhere. As someone who employed cricket as a peace-making instrument in Kashmir through the organisation of the Kashmir Premier League (KPL) in 2011 and 2012, I retain confidence in the game’s “beyond sports” credentials. KPL was all about restoring dignity and pride to the people of Kashmir once the situation came under control there. We were not building bridges but rather cementing relationships and trust.
So, if someone uses this analogy to suggest that cricket and the love for it among the people of India and Pakistan can make it an instrument of peace between our two nations, would I be tempted to fall for it? The answer is, not really. Because even while the people of the two nations have no real problem with each other, there is the looming presence in Pakistan of a deeper-than-most deep state. Its multiple layers lead to a grey zone with threat perceptions difficult to realistically estimate — peace and hostility may depend on the time of the day.
