A new chapter begins: India-Pakistan on-field cricket bonhomie now officially a thing of the past?

If one were to trace the origins of the gesture of the handshake, which is always with the right hand, regardless of which the dominant hand is of the participant(s), one will find that the gesture was first introduced to show that the right hand was empty and that one was not carrying a weapon or weapons, which were predominantly wielded by a person in his or her right hand. Thus, it was a gesture of peace, to show that one did not intend to do any harm.

Over time the handshake of course entered the sports field as well and became a gesture of camaraderie, of wishing an opponent good luck, or commiserating a loss, or accepting defeat with grace etc. It’s considered to be a subset of fair-play in a sporting encounter. However, it is not mandatory. In fact, some authorities have even banned the handshake (which also happened globally during the Coronavirus pandemic for obvious reasons). In 2023, the governing body of ice-hockey in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador banned post-game handshakes after multiple player altercations.

India refuses to acknowledge Pakistan

That though was not the reason why Team India members refused to shake the hands of their Pakistan counterparts after their Asia Cup clash in Dubai on Sunday. It was a collective call of the entire team, backed by the team management, and according to reports, the BCCI and the Indian government as well. Suryakumar Yadav and his team felt that though cricketing ties with the neighbours have not been entirely cut off, for various reasons, they couldn’t, in good faith, shake hands with players who represent a country that India recently had an armed conflict with.

The Men in Blue were well within their rights to refuse handshakes and when SKY first didn’t shake Pakistan captain Salman Agha’s hand during the toss and then later hit the match-winning six and straightaway turned around to walk back to the dressing room, the message was clear – “we will play with you, but we want to send out the message that we wish to have nothing else to do with you.”

This was the first meeting between these two teams since the conflict earlier this year. So, was what happened in Pahalgam in April, where 26 civilians were killed and a dozen others injured after a terror-attack by armed gunmen, the last straw for the Indian cricketers?

India and Pakistan have had a fractured relationship from the time of partition, but relationships on the cricket field and off it were almost always amiable. Barring a few one-on-one relationships, cricketers on either side of the border often remained cordial with one another. In fact, till very recently, Indian and Pakistani cricketers were seen interacting with each other, often sharing a joke on the field, checking out each other’s equipment and hugging each other. The quality of India-Pakistan cricket matches steadily deteriorated as the quality of Indian cricket became stronger and Pakistan’s went downhill, but inter-personal relationships between cricketers from the two countries seemed just fine.

An increasingly one-sided rivalry

In fact, many cricket commentators and journalists, including yours truly, observed how the rivalry between Indian and Pakistani cricketers on the field, which had once been extremely fierce and which was apparent from the body language of the players, had simmered down almost completely.

Incidents like Inzamam ul Haq storming into the stands in Toronto to confront an Indian fan, or Gautam Gambhir and Shahid Afridi having a go at each other or Harbhajan Singh and Shoaib Akhtar exchanging ‘pleasantries’ had become things of the past. Not that we were missing ugly on-field spats, but the intensity that players earlier brought to the ground via their body language in India vs Pakistan cricket matches seemed to be missing.

This coupled with the fact that India began to almost completely dominate Pakistan in every department , dented the ferocity of India-Pakistan clashes. What at one time was tagged ‘the mother of all cricket battles’, mostly by TV channels in their headlines, had become a predictable shadow of its former self. One really got the feeling that India had won a match against the neighbours even before the actual contest began, because the Men in Blue had won it in their minds.

We saw another instance of just that on Sunday in Dubai. Pakistan were just no match for India’s T20I prowess – something that has helped the Indian team hold on to the numero-uno spot in the ICC T20I team rankings for a very long time now. While India are ranked 1st, Pakistan are currently 8th.

What changed on Sunday though was Team India’s on-field attitude towards their counterparts in green. At the risk of being called unsportsmanlike, the team, as a unit, chose to not acknowledge the Pakistan players, both before and after the match. And when the Indian skipper made it clear at the post-match press conference why they had done that, we knew that a new chapter in the India-Pakistan cricketing rivalry had begun. Their on-field bonhomie now officially seems to be a thing of the past. In many ways it reminded some of us of Ukrainian athletes , across every sport, refusing to shake hands with their Russian opponents.

Suryakumar Yadav echoed the sentiment of the entire Indian team set-up when he said - “Few things in life are ahead of sportsman spirit also. I’ve (said) it at the presentation as well, we stand with all the victims of Pahalgam terror attacks, stand with their families, and express our solidarity.”

The fact that this Indian team decided not to acknowledge the Pakistan players at all also begs the question – after what happened in Pahalgam, do current Indian cricketers ideally not want to play Pakistan at all?

A planned boycott

Though there have been long phases in which political relationships between the two countries have been strained, this one caught almost everyone by surprise, no one saw this coming - a planned boycott, a complete cold shoulder. And the message was passed on to the Match Referee well before the game began on Sunday.

According to multiple reports, match referee Andy Pycroft, a former Zimbabwean cricketer, had told Pakistan captain Agha that he shouldn’t try to shake hands with Suryakumar Yadav at the toss. In fact, there was not even any eye-contact made between the two captains at the toss and the team-sheets were handed in by them straight to Pycroft. There are also some reports of the Indian cricketers locking the door of their dressing room, when some Pakistani cricketers wanted to approach them after the match.

The Pakistan set-up of course is not happy. Agha was missing from the post-match presentation, an official complaint has been made against Pycroft, with the PCB demanding his immediate removal from the Asia Cup. A whole host of former Pakistan cricketers are up in arms.

Next Sunday (September 21) will see a clash between the top two teams of Group A (A1 vs A2). In other words, this will, in all probability be another India vs Pakistan match. While how the Pakistan team will respond/behave in that game is anyone’s guess, it would be fair to say that we know what India’s stand is going to be.

As things stand, perhaps it’s quite clear that at least as far as the current Indian cricket team is concerned, the Pahalgam attack was the last straw.