Opinion

Why just cricket?

Why did the Pakistani nation get so worked up about cricket?

Foqia Sadiq Khan April 01, 2011

Why just cricket?

The lasting image of the Pakistan-India semi-final imprinted on my mind is that of a group of youngsters, dressed in cricket team uniforms, sitting in a row in front of a place selling kabab rolls at midnight, discussing Pakistan’s loss. There were processions of victory after the first innings but after Pakistan lost, there was aerial firing which killed one person in Peshawar and caused quite a few injuries.

Why did the Pakistani nation get so worked up about cricket? Sensationalist media hype was created much before the semi-final. Half-literate and jingoistic TV anchors were drumming the victory beat with never-ending live talk shows. Not only did the Pakistani prime minister, his cabinet and political leadership fly to India, but the entire country closed shop and watched the game. This obsessive behaviour perhaps indicates that there is a void in our society, that many Pakistanis seem to be deprived of the ‘feel-good factor’ and that is perhaps why they responded the way they did to a cricket match.

How many among our youth know Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Pablo Neruda and Indu Mitha?

Why are music, art, poetry and books not our source of pleasure and pride?

How many of us know the works of Sadequain, Gulgee, Nagori and Bashir Mirza? How many of us feel proud about Ayesha Jalal being the only Pakistani MacArthur Fellow or Asim Ijaz Khwaja being the first Pakistani tenured professor at Harvard?

How can we make tailors, drivers, guards and farmers take pride in Roshan Ara Begum and Pathanay Khan? Why do we not want to produce more Zia Mohyeddins? How can an overwhelming number of our youth compete with the Indian youth in their mastery over Ghalib? Why can’t the Pakistani youth compete with the Indian youth in sarangi, bansuri, tabla, sitar and harmonium? Why can’t we compete with Indians in the reading of books like War and Peace, Lolita, Capital and Hamlet?

We have to make knowledge, music, art and poetry more accessible to people.

Music band Laal, is one such admirable effort. There is a need for hundreds of thousands of such efforts! The government and donors need to earmark money and make serious programmes to give priority to art and knowledge, and make books popular with the youth and the nation as a whole. Art should not be limited to the symbolism of an annual artisans’ mela in Shakarparian in Islamabad. It has to be a lived reality in schools (particularly government schools), newspapers and electronic media. Art and knowledge have to be made as popular as cricket. Otherwise, the crisis-ridden and volatile Pakistani state and society will not be able to counter retrogressive right-wing mobilisation.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 2^nd, 2011.

COMMENTS (23)

chanan mishra | 13 years ago | Reply Writer has aptly pointed out the needs and requirement of fair competition that pakistanis should face with indians rather than an anti India apprach but Cricket passion has nothing to do with all those things mentioned in the article. Presupposing that author has seen both semifinal and final matches then one thing which was prima facie visible was the enthusiasm and anti enthusiasm in Pakistni match was more as compared to final match. At the same time there was praise for Afridi for his sportsman spirit.What author has to say about this stand taken by Indians?

sukirat anand | 13 years ago | Reply I do not understand why WE ( on both sides of the border) are so obsessed with cricket only. Great sport, I concede, but NOT the only one. ( And most of the world does not even understand it; only 'us' who were once ruled by the British). Even the Brits are passionate about other sports like football. But we solely suffer from this cricket-fever . Cricketers, again on both sides of the border, are stars while football/ hockey/kabaddi players are not even known. Media hype on both sides is such that this aristocratic leisurely game of 'classes' has turned into hysteria of 'masses'. Time for all of us to grow up ( and grow out of cricket-centric existence ) a bit.

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Reena Satin | 13 years ago | Reply A thought provoking article, and equally sincere comments. Here in India too, cricket in general, and Pak-Ind matches in particular evoke senselessly extreme emotions. Here too these matches are more about jingoism than game. The only way out is to play more often.

Addie | 13 years ago | Reply As a MacArthur fellow or a tenured Harvard professor, there's no doubt that these Pakistanis are ambassadors of the country in a global presence. It's certainly an inspiring story that these people have made it to such prestigious statures. It is debatable whether or not they should be giving back to their country and/or coming back to Pakistan. Abdus Salaam is a nobel laureate in Physics and a Pakistani. There's a huge research facility in Italy called the Abdus Salaam Institute. These things make a difference too. I don't think the author is implying that everyone should leave their country and study in a western nation. I think she's targeting the passion that these people have for the fields they work in - just the way that cricketers are expected to in cricket. And how about that? How about passion towards something outside of cricket?

Ahmad Azhar | 13 years ago | Reply "How many of us feel proud about Ayesha Jalal being the only Pakistani MacArthur Fellow or Asim Ijaz Khwaja being the first Pakistani tenured professor at Harvard?" Strange how you try to make a case for "educating" the masses and then hold up the example of intellectuals/academics that take up tenure in american universities. A minor criticism though of an article that is unabashedly patronizing towards popular culture. The attempt to peddle this contemptuous claptrap as a lament for the loss of history and culture fails miserably and what we are left with is the writer's insufferable snobbery.

Ayesha Salman | 13 years ago | Reply Foqia, this is a very well written article. To someone who mentioned above that sport is as important as art- I don't think the writer is trying to undermine the love of sport, she is merely trying to point out that such extreme frenzy related to any activity at all is unnatural! If people divided their time in a more balanced way and ventured into other areas enjoying various forms of art, literature and philosophy, wouldn't that be much healthier than weeping and wailing and DYING over losing a game? I have to say this game was not even about sport- it was about patriotism in its darkest form and about age old enmities between countries. Can't we move on? There is so much more to do in this one small life we have! There are worlds that we can all discover if we tried a little harder.

Name | 13 years ago | Reply Mam, you wrote well. Honestly speaking it is like, Bhains kay agay been bajana," to write about arts in Pakistan.

Tony Singh | 13 years ago | Reply @An Elder Pakistani: Have still not understood why? Maybe the guys who asked for seperation wanted to protect rich Punjabi Zamindaars. You tell us the other reasons.

Ravindra Mishra | 13 years ago | Reply I should like to thank the columnist for high lighting this issue. This is relevant BOTH to India and Pakistan. However, there is an over emphasis on the 'thinkers' in India. Not as much on the 'doers'. In both countries people equate success with a preference of jobs that gurantee clean hands and neat desk. This is what defines the elites in both societies. ========= I should like to share a quote by John Gardner in context of this column: Which is why we aren't ( despite all the harping ), a truly technologically or even culturally innovative society. Just consider the rampant plagiarism in our media and the shoddy quality of fiction, where 'market penetration' is the over riding objective. ========= I should like to share a quote by John Gardner in context of this column: South Asians are the greatest worshippers of Mammon and Molloch. We denote success in terms of cash awards and rewards. This is because we have been for the past five hundred years an overwhelmingly deprived society, something that the British colonial rule exacerbated immeasurably. It is important for the health of any society to have well balanced and all round growth. Are we getting it in South Asia today? Is our governance improving? Are our military expenditures going down with a corresponding increase in investments in health and education? Let's be all honest about this. We are both robbing ourselves. ========= I should like to share a quote by John Gardner in context of this column: "The society which scorns excellence in plumbing as a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy: neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water."

An Elder Pakistani | 13 years ago | Reply Lately authors of Tribune are churning out articles upon articles so they keep the economical wheel rolling and the purpose of a separate homeland for Muslims is laid to rest completely and quickly ? If youth of Pakistan and India have to act similarly than what was the point of two separate countries?

bhopali | 13 years ago | Reply Khwab se bdar hua zara mehkoom agar; Phir sula deti hai usko humaraaN ki sahiri. -Allama Iqbal Indo-Pak problems almost are same. an't it ?

Sams | 13 years ago | Reply instead of giving a comparison between indian and pakistani youth you should have concentrated on the roll of media and political leaders in this regard.

Adnan | 13 years ago | Reply I respect the views of writer but I don't think that writers comparison of sports vs art justifies in her writing. Sports teaches a lot of things in a practical way and boost up the ability of mind. I myself is an art lover but do watch the both sides of the picture. I do not claim to be a very wise and outstanding person but one should not discourage a positive activities for sake of another positive activity.

Addie | 13 years ago | Reply Well, certainly this is an academic point of view. There isn't really a sizable population of people in India who read Tolstoy. I think the economic differences play a huge role in the conscious happiness of people. India has grown tremendously over the last 15 years or so. The economic grown has certainly reduces the extent of anti-Pakistan notions in India, especially when the younger generation has a fixation toward things like their iPods, Bollywood & Hollywood, the stock market, cars, electronics and/or the dreams of becoming a millionaire.

Suresh | 13 years ago | Reply Youth can swallow and digest anything, feeding hand that it matters! When the whole earth is polluted, where will you find clean and healthy food?

White Russian | 13 years ago | Reply The reason that people are not interested in culture and literature (anymore) is that interest in culture/literature was so obsessively questioned that it got killed. Like the questioning in this article, if carried to logical end may end up killing our interest in cricket, or sports in general, or even the right to become festive and happy from time to time. Never mind. I fear this kind of puritan inquisition more than being obsessed with cricket or anything for that matter.

Salman Ahmad | 13 years ago | Reply It is all about priorities. If your collective culture thrives on underachieving and justifying the means to reach the otherwise unreachable goals then chicanery and deceptive tactics become a second nature. Cricket is just a game. But it requires descipline, team work, respect of principles, following the rules, and above all respect of others. These qualities define the fabric of individuals and thus the nations. Those who hold cricket or other sports at a higher mantle than education should do soul searching and ask why we the world and olympic hockey champions at one time came in 12th in a 12 team world cup. Cricket's history is no less sordid, in fact even worse, no one is willing to step inside our borders. And incidentally, education is not about fake degrees but genuine knowledge. Salman Ahmad San Diego, California

Anonymous | 13 years ago | Reply Why is the Pakistani media obssessed with the word 'jingoistic'? Looks like they just discovered it. Earlier it was 'diaspora'.

Kan | 13 years ago | Reply Because Music is a HINDU heritage.... Islam has no contribution to music and infact it prohibits it...

Ibn Warraq | 13 years ago | Reply Q Why can’t the Pakistani youth compete with the Indian youth in sarangi, bansuri, tabla, sitar and harmonium? A Because music is haram. In Hinduism there is a separate goddess(Saraswati) dedicated to it. Q How can an overwhelming number of our youth compete with the Indian youth in their mastery over Ghalib? A You-know-who sent assassins after poets. Hindu holy books are in verse. Q Why can’t we compete with Indians in the reading of books like War and Peace, Lolita, Capital and Hamlet? A We have better things to read - the Koran and Hadith.

Humanity | 13 years ago | Reply @neemhakim: because we are NOT nerds. we are jocks. GET IT????? Thinking is upsetting. It tells us things we'd rather not know. So said, Brickman in A Small Society cartoon clip.

Cakeboy | 13 years ago | Reply I am sure certain people who read the long list of cultural yawn entities mentioned would be impressed by the writer's knowledge of them, what I see is a paradox. The writer fails to realise that sports is as much a part o a developing civilization as literature, art, theater etc are. I am not going to waste my time in pointing out the role sports played in the greek, roman, mughal, cilivizations etc. I am just going to say that if you do not consider a certain form of art as art, and thus fail to give it due recognition, it doesnt take anything away from the art form, it just shows your lack of understanding.

neemhakim | 13 years ago | Reply because we are NOT nerds. we are jocks. GET IT?????

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