Bal Thackeray calls Pakistan cricket team tour a matter of 'national shame'
"The Pakistan team will be playing matches at Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Bengaluru. At one point or the other, Pak terrorists have attacked these cities," said Thackeray.
“The feet of Pakistani players won't touch Maharashtra but their tour of these cities is a matter of national shame,” he said.
He also accused the BCCI of "betraying the country for sake of money" and Indian cricketers of being part of that betrayal.
Thackeray considers it an insult to those who had lost their lives in the Mumbai 26/11 attacks.
He also criticized Indian Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, for having "offered his services to Pakistan" and said that "except for Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar, no one opposed playing cricket with Pakistan".
India’s cricket board announced earlier that it had secured government clearance to host Pakistan for a short tour later this year.
The BCCI has invited Pakistan to play three one-dayers and two Twenty20 matches in December-January, the first bilateral contests between the arch-rivals in five years.
COMMENTS (88)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
1732434981-0/BeFunky-collage-(10)1732434981-0-405x300.webp "article")
1732429143-0/BeFunk_§_]__-(44)1732429143-0.jpg "mobile internet services disrupted in karachi")
1732428532-0/BeFunk_§_]__-(43)1732428532-0.jpg "train operations halted between lahore rawalpindi peshawar amid pti protest")
1732427746-0/Copy-of-Untitled-(2)1732427746-0-270x192.webp "flood damaged water channels restored in balochistan")
Thank you for understanding your own limitations.
But, please don't forget to see the english teacher. Remember, the two words? 'Education' and 'Learning'. Also, avoid using such words like, Tu, Be etc. That's the kind of language used mostly by north indian baniyas (with lots of money but too little education). People who went to good schools, had good teachers and good parents never use vulgur language.
Thanks.
@Cynical:And When I said that i wanna talk to you..... Let us stop here.
@Nitish 'But we educated lot know about them....'
So you consider yourself to be one among the educated lot, fine! Now go, and get hold of someone who has a good understanding of the english language. Ask him to explain the difference between 'Education' and 'Learning' to you. Understand that clearly, and come back. Then we will talk. Good luck.
@Cynical: And again i m quoting here,you r a pakistani.India is a very complex nation.To understand india will be very difficult for you.There r three separate laws for three ethnic group in india..Hindu law,Mohmdean law based upon sharia and christian law.Coz of that Sometime laws comes into confliction.Judges have to make the balance.US has uniform civil code i mean only one law ie christian law.Every person from different ethnic group have to abide by that.and Dont apply ur brain upon how we have to deal with conversions.It will be beyond your understanding.
@Nitish
I do not want to take advantage of your intellectual capacity, so let me keep it simple. So these tribals took money to convert. Why they took money? Because they are poor. Why VHP didn't gave them the money so that they don't succumbed to conversion?. You seem to have no problem with christians giving them the money, as long as they don't convert. In other words, for these tribals, your prescription is, 'christian money and hindu religion'. Let me tell you, these people got converted in an attempt to escape poverty, not to hurt the inflated ego of some (well fed) religious nuts. However, seeing your raging concern about conversion, I am trying (under no coercion from you or VHP) to devise a strategy to combat this vile act that conversion is. Keeping up to my promise of not taking advantage of your intellectual capacity I kept it simple. It consists of 3 types of conversion and the corresponding remedies thereof. Here it goes; a. Conversion by force.- Resist by force. (Liked it! I knew! I can see the glee in your eyes) If you win, you win. If you loose, bad luck. b. Conversion by material inducement.- Offer matching inducement, but to be certain, increase the stake. Success is almost guaranteed. c. Conversion out of free will - No solution found yet. This is a tricky one. Usually happens from exposure to new ideas and/or knowing something not known before. Since ideas travel at cosmic levels, known deterants like passport/visa, customs duty, barbed fence etc. are of no use. Anyway I am still searching for a solution, will let you know as soon as I find one. Hope, it will soothe your tortured soul. .
What has Bal Thackeray said that is wrong? He is not condoning terrorist acts or hatred, he is saying the same thing Obama would say if the Taliban were allowed to play cricket in Afghanistan. Think about it.
@Cynical:
As a point of interest, I invite your attention to a post upthread from one @Nitish. which is nothing but unmitigated vitriol against an ethno-religious group.
Not exactly the best advertisement for India now, is it, that even burning of missionary can be justified? The two posts are important. They expose the lie that some live by telling themselves that they are a tolerant, benign lot. The aggression, coupled with perpetual victim-hood as a defense mechanism of the weak, does indicate that the so called "tolerance" of such men has no real basis in fact. It never was. To be tolerant in a position of weakness is a necessity dictated by helplessness; it becomes a virtue only when one is a stronger party & in power due to arithmetic of democracy. And then to continue to practice tolerance even when one can be otherwise is a sign of maturity & self-confidence. Most Indians do display that, some don't.
@Cynical: @Nitish. which is nothing but unmitigated vitriol against an ethno-religious group.
You have no idea about the aggressiveness of churches in preaching their religion in india.They became very much powerful.All due to support of UK and US.Actually when VHP went to talk with those converted tribal people ,they faced harsh opposition from christian organization.Tribal people dont speak the same language as what common indians speak.But some how they were able to convince them that they got money to get converted.This is somewhat we consider unbearable.Hinduism is very much vulnerable.I never saw a guy who converted ever revert back to hinduism neither there is any concept of conversion in hinduism.We were shocked actually how come such a large number of people at a time converted themselves to other religion.After that incident,GOI was forced to change the law for conversion.Now Indias law clearly states that conversion coz of money is forcible conversion and the organizations who r indulged in such activity will be brought up to the book.But you r a pakistani.No wonder for you ,converting people by any means(forcible or free will) is a divine service . So you feel like it was attack on an ethno-religious group.no not at all.Believe me hinduism is very much accommodating.we dont attack you until or unless you poke us to do so.You can see,almost all riot by hindus either godhra or odisha is mere a retaliatory act.Yes, the proportion of damage is high.,for which i hold minority group responsible . And one more thing,india was,is and always will be hindu majority nation.
@G Din
My rejoinder to your post wrongly appears to be addressed to myself. Regret the inconvenience.
@Cynical:
You are correct. My post too was denied. For some strange reason this Rasputin is much favoured by some over here. Though in poor health & heading towards his end one must still know what he is. Thackeray Family is one of those that lives off a megacity. His tirade against Pakistanis is nothing as compared with his hatred for other Indians: the Bihari, the UPite, the Muslim, the Tamil etc. All are fair game in his unfair game. He does follow the code of the extortionist though. That is, his nuisance value is inversely proportionate to the money he gets. Gujarati bizmen would have been at the receiving end too but they bribe him & so does Bollywood. Eventually BCCI will buy him off.
@Cynical:
State of Maharashtra is not “22 yards of turf”!
Neither Maharashtra is the sum of Pune and Bombay municipality (that too in parts only). You know what I mean. As for..... beyond the petticoat of the Rome-ordained Mother-hen! It's pure verbose, lacking both in substance and style. Taste of course, is another matter, highly personal.
@Ibrahim Nadir: Never! Those who forget are condemned to the indignity of victimized again!
A sincere (TRUST ME) request. Don't preach this to millions of India's OBC, SC,ST, Tribals ETC. If they remember with the same zeal as you are preaching now, god help India. I am familiar with your posts. Mostly interesting! At times very interesting!!
@ET Moderator
What did you find objectionable in my comment? Is it against your editorial policy to expose Bal Thackeray with known facts?
@Cynical: "So the mighty maratha is now busied himself protecting 22 yards of turf!" State of Maharashtra is not "22 yards of turf"! But, let us wait and see how far ManMohan's Pakistani appeasement goes. My guess is not much beyond the petticoat of the Rome-ordained Mother-hen! @Ibrahim Nadir: "@All indian who support this guy:Forget whats past." Never! Those who forget are condemned to the indignity of victimized again!
"Making such a statement full of extremism isn’t helping any cause just giving air to the fire already in action." One of the best ways of stopping a fire in its track is to light small fires in its path. Did you know that? That is Firefighting 101. A bully can be made to back down only by looking him squarely in the eye! Pakistan has tried bullying and every time backed down with a humble pie in its mouth. There is no reason to change now!
Pakistan and India have had troublesome ties since the very beginning of their inception, yet it is these events which stretch out to build peace and harmony between the two countries.
Thackeray sahib makes a valid point, but then if there are some events which can add to the friendship, then why not grasp them.
I just hope and pray that through this series in India, new ties may emerge between the two countries.
@Midhat Most of the indians don't even know those names you mentioned We don't promote hatred. Better you also don't.
Thackrey Sahab, you are biggest shame to India and Mumbai
@G. Din 'Why, do you think, there is no match being played in Mumbai or Maharashtra, home of the great Sachin Tendulkar? Do you get the drift?
So the mighty maratha is now busied himself protecting 22 yards of turf! What a climb down from the 'Fort of Raigad'. Some drift, indeed.
@Tufan Agha: "Where are our Indian Friends who like to comment on every news and happening in Pakistan courtesy ET."
For Indians he is not worth commenting upon. He gets more coverage in Pakistan than in India.
But he has a point about the Mumbai attacks. We will not rest till we get the perpetrators and planners. By protecting Mumbai terrorists, Pakistan itself is empowering such fringe elements in India.
@ajay so r u saying that indian board has no personal interest in this series?and this series wouldnt bring anything for them .. No one resorts to anything , anyone says, as you put it, unless they have their own interests in it. get out of your " the whole world revolves around india" thing.cricketers will play as it is their job , and you shouldnt compare something completely irrelevant with cricket and cricketers.
@Midhat: yes what ur problem
@Reidi: Talking about persecution of christian that too in orisha is nothing shameful and always justified.They actually provoked us to do so.They converted 900 people to christianity at a time.Tribal people r illiterate and have no knowledge of the religion.They just live in their culture and not very civilized.These western funded missionary paid them to convert into christanity.India's consider conversion coz of money as forcible conversion.Outrage from hindu organizations were inevitable and so was the outcome.First they revert them back and attacked on those missionary organization.Burning of australian national was also coz of conversion issue.Man you have no idea about diversity of india.So stop your foolish rant.Some people in diifernt part of india eat snack an all and no less than south african.But still they r hindu.Govt efforts r going on to make them civilize and bring them into main stream.But irony is that these west funded missionaries have converted 20 lakhs people in last 15 yrs.
I think he is just a hypocrite that has been played up by the media.
@Tj
What do you expect the Indian board to do after being bombarded by relentless begging ? It is too tiring and cumbersome to even enumerate the number of visits made by Pakistani cricket officials to India, begging by your cricketers. At least try to get your facts right.
And that's why i hate them.
@dude: Hmm, guess Pakistanis like you have got the taste of innocent's blood !!
@ ethicalman
Dude u r just jealous of what our artists are doing in ur own country. Kindly get a life..
Complete lies. Used to knock back a few with this chap back in the day - over how he can play his part in controlling the Mao'ists. He failed at that, and therefore has resorted to this. As Nitish pointed out above, his own granddaughter loves Pakistanis, as does most of his family. Please don't believe everything you read/hear in the news..
@indian: Negotiation is a wise deed my dear. Bal Thackeray is just showing his teeth for nothing. He sucks like a bug.
Mr. Bal Thackeray, talking about terrorism in Delhi. Kalkota ....... amazing. What about the christians of Gujrat? who killed them? Pakistan? The christians who fled India in the 90's went to the USA and applied for political asylums, have shown the reason in their applications. Their kith and kin were killed and they were threaten by the shev sinha. The fundamental ideology of religions and fanatics are everywhere. We cannot blame the whole country for the actions of a particular group or person. Terrorists have been funneled in Pakistan as well as in India. We should change the course of politicking on the issues. Both Pakistan and India needs a serious thinking over the realities and how to cope with them, instead of pointing fingers at each other and distorting facts to deceive their own people. The reality is that both are the poorest countries, in fact, and are spending more on arms than the education. Change this attitude. Wars have never been won by arms but by siting on the table. To sit on the table and talk logic, we need an educated nation not the nuclear nukes. Concentrate on that, not on cricket teams and killing each other. Read the book, 'Heart Divided' written by Ms. Shahnawaz ( the first Pakistani ambassador to the USA). These are the same people who love each other. They do not want to kill each other. Please do not politicize Terrorism.
For all the indians please read carefully it says indian board invited our players , probably this series would generate billions of rupees for the indian economy. Look whos after the money!
@Ajay: Its just cricket. Stop hating on everything.. Mis-trust on political issues occur in Pakistan as well, but Cricket seriously?? We really need to grow up.. It would make some sense if he gave this statement if Hafiz Saeed was granted indian visa but criket?? Should people like him be taken seriously at all? I have always planned to visit Taj-Mahel some day, and my indian friends express their interest in Lahore but nut-heads like these can make it sound like a national conspiracies. Please let some sanity prevail
@PaKhtoon @Ajay: “Why do Pakistanis have to visit India at all ?” coz it will be a great pleasure to trash your team on your own soil my dear,when was the last time Pakistan won any match against India even on a neutral venue....forgot WC semis,Asia cup or even as recent as world T-20....okayyyy so you are referring to that friendly in SL....
@ethicalman: What you are forgetting is that the same artists make your record labels a lot of money, otherwise all you guys have is himesh mochiaand abhijeet type jokers. btw India is the largest aid recipient of UK (even after the drama of we dont need your aid any more). what you indians dont get is that 99 percent of pakistanis dont support hafiz saeed type extremists where as what is sad to see is too many of you bala saheb's orange lollypop suckers.
Shameful act of BCCI and GOI
Bal thakray tum charho pooray pakistan kai L par...
But sir,your granddaughter supports pakistan.ask her.You can keep Bihar,Up and Karnatka in control par apni poti kyun nahi sambhal paye....big question mark.Et i want it to be published.It is nothing offensive to anyone.
Where are our Indian Friends who like to comment on every news and happening in Pakistan courtesy ET. Come one take charge of Hindu Taliban.
@Indian:
So Maya Kodnani and Babu Bajrangi( from Bajrandal ) were Nationalists too? Why can't we stop making excuses for people like Bal Thakuray.. Such idiots no matter to which side of the border they belong , are champions of HATE, and nothing more.. About time we shun these hatemongers, not endorse them..
It will be an issue of national shame AFTER Pakistan has played India on home soil ;)
@dude: this guy comes across worse than hafiz saeed. lol
This guy is just a hate monger who lives in the media by passing controversial statements...The only reason he came to power once was because the govt was tired of corrupt NCP and decided to give them a try.....But they realised the mistake and now prefer the corrupt NCP
But dont compare him to Hafiz Saeed, he never collected money to spread terror in Pakistan,nor did has he sent terrorists to Karachi by boat......Hafiz Saeed is in a separate league altogether
@Zeux
The answer is simple. This is about Pakistan team visiting my country. I could care less if Pakistan had visited some other place. Got it ?
@All indian who support this guy:
Forget whats past. Making such a statement full of extremism isn't helping any cause just giving air to the fire already in action.
@Pakhtoon
The only thing that you have proved is that begging pays. Pakistan's relentless begging has paid off. Good going, keep it up..
@Enlighten Me
He is nationalist , not extremist . We are not fools . Nationalists are always welcome in India .
@Vikas:@IZ:May be not, but we take Pakistanis very seriously as they are terrorist until proven innocent.
Faulty Logic Sir..Stop Hating
@dude: "this guy comes across worse than hafiz saeed. lol."
I would agree he is fringe and he is not in power either but - he did not train 10 Indians who came and killed people in Karachi - HE does not motivate people in the name of religion to go and attack innocent Pakistani civilians and kill them.
No comparison t Hafiz Saeed
Hating on playing Cricket..? Now thats a National Shame!! Pride for champions of Idiocy though
yes , national shame .But we can't go out on a rampage like pakis generally do in their country . We are not programed to do this .Shame on Indian gov !!!
@Asif Khokher: At least he's not a UN designated terrorist who kills people. Those who're comparing him to Hafiz Saeed are just upset that Thakeray is not as unhinged as some people in Pakistan.
@PaKhtoon: and islamic republic of pakistan is proud of hafiz saeed and imran khan who wants to negotiate with taliban??
bal thackeray ki jai...................he said it so right...............its good that at least someone still has the rage of mumbai attacks ................
Why is this guy being given so Much power , let the dogs bark.
This is not a shame. This is a BETRAYAL.
The country from where terrorists came and killed 180 people is being given a welcome just to make the money by BCCI.
The blood of 180 people killed in mumbai is on the hands of BCCI.
*only we
And indians think only they have extremists.... tch tch the ignorant indians...
@Ajay: Why do you indians have to visit our Pakistani sites?
He probably doesn't know that he has such a devoted fan following in Pakistan, or he would may have been less harsh in his attitude :) - he has to do a lot more to become front page news in India.
@Pankaj: "why are u not posting my comments ?" go back to TOI, you are not eligible for this platform
he tried to compete with Zaid Hamid in his trade but was badly defeated .... after-all there can be only one masterpiece....
@Ajay: "Why do Pakistanis have to visit India at all ?" coz it will be a great pleasure to trash your team on your own soil
BalTAK & Modi , the true face of the world's biggest democracy...
@IZ: May be not, but we take Pakistanis very seriously as they are terrorist until proven innocent.
Now tell me, who is Extremist and always threatening ??
and people like Asma Jahangir go and pay tribute to this legendary lover of Pakistan for his services by visiting or i should say by appearing in his Darbar...
But i know most of the indians dont feel the same way .... let the cricket begins...
@IZ
whats wrong in what he is saying ??
Yes. As an example look at the response of @Dr. Dang.
why are u not posting my comments ?
do what you do best, DIG 'EM UP
Why do Pakistanis have to visit India at all ?
@IZ: "Question for Indian readers: Does anyone in India still take this guy seriously anymore?" Why, do you think, there is no match being played in Mumbai or Maharashtra, home of the great Sachin Tendulkar? Do you get the drift?
He has to prove his existence, nothing more! If he have a go, he will demolish all mosques in India and kill all Muslims before attacking Pakistan to complete his mission!
@IZ: No!
Balsaheb ur true we r shame less ...Manmohan sing is Robot .....
This man is only alive on cricket issues i think, nothing more value of this yellow cap.
@IZ: No, in fact he has taken semi retirement from politics and his son Uddhav Thackrey is the party chief. But shiv Sena is a dead organization now, which makes some provocative remarks from time to time to keep limelight on itself, but largely irrelevant
@IZ: He is far better than most of your politicians. What he says may sound rude to you but there is a history to why he is saying that. Do you take your Govt seriously? Shouldn't your law enforcement put those responsible for mumbai attack behind the bars? Are you guys serious at all about this? or are you still supporting them?
Question for Indian readers: Does anyone in India still take this guy seriously anymore?
this guy comes across worse than hafiz saeed. lol.
This government is a JOKE , Thackeray sahab ..
A pure basket case. Nothing else.