ISLAMABAD:
Much as international cricketers revere the opportunity to play at Lord’s, Islamabad sit-in participants have given the same honour to their Constitution Avenue.
Since Tahirul Qadri directed his workers to pursue some recreational activities, part of Constitution Avenue has turned into a street cricket playing field.
Bats and tennis balls were provided by supporters as gifts, while in some cases, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT)workers just went and bought them.
The regular matches have noticeably heightened the spirits of sit-in participants.
Even in recreation, however, the participants try to redefine ‘red lines’.
The fences of the Presidency and Parliament are treated as boundaries and every batsman seems to be attempting to hit the ball inside these buildings, as if to challenge the red lines.
“The dullness is over now and we are feeling a bit relaxed. Now we can stay for months,” said Javed, a PAT worker.
The regular matches have also been accompanied by increased use of cricketing terms by PAT workers in general conversation, a practice once limited to the PTI supporters.
Among the other terms gaining popularity are nicknames based on reviled figures, for example, those suspected of playing dirty are derogatorily called ‘Gullo Butt’.
On Monday morning, The PTI and PAT played a “warm up match”, to quote Javed, which was won by the PTI team. Interestingly, there was no umpire present.
But while sports diplomacy is also used to improve people-to-people relations between nation-states, the fine art of ‘diplo-speak’ is lost on the avenue.
“The match with PTI was a friendly. The real match we are preparing for will be with the parliamentarian who stole our mandate,” he said.
Talking about clashes with police, he said PAT won a walkover, because “after they started losing, the police ran away from the stadium”.
We want to play a match with the unscrupulous parliamentarians and match-fixers on the condition that they resign if they lose, he said.
Later, making a statement that would make any cricket purist cringe, he said the match was not exciting like a limited overs game, but boring like a test match.
“This test match could take months and even years,” he said.
If measured in terms of test match duration, the sit ins are now well into their fifth straight match without a day off, and neither of the captains seems to be in the mood to get timed out.
“I am of the view that no team is a favourite. The results are unpredictable, but if PAT loses the match the government will at least not be the winner,” he said.
Sharing his views with The Express Tribune, sit-in participant Safdar Zia said the PAT and PTI are “bowling bouncers and yorkers which have demoralised the government’s batsmen. Let’s see for how long these shameless Gullu Butts face our strong bowling line.”
He said Kaptan (Imran Khan) often drops by and offers them important tips on how to target the “weak batting line” and “survive their foul play”.
At the same time he admitted that there are difference between cricket and politics when asked if the two captains had backed up too far.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 9th, 2014.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ