India-Pakistan cricket row over navy caps and politics in recreation

The controversy across the Indian cricket crew wearing army caps on the field to pay homage to its troops has reignited a a long time-vintage debate over the integration of politics with sports.

India’s countrywide facet came beneath scrutiny for “militarising” the game after its players wore army camouflage caps at some stage in a match in opposition to Australia in the jap Indian metropolis of Ranchi.

The gesture, earlier this month, became in solidarity with the Indian paramilitary police officers killed in a suicide assault by means of a Pakistan-based organization within the disputed Kashmir region and to increase donations for the National Defence Fund.

But analysts and sports international relations specialists puzzled the Indian cricket group’s pass, pronouncing it did “no favours to both national protection nor recreation”.

“It’s quality to raise money for the troops so long as the fundraising occurs off the field,” Mukul Kesavan, an Indian author and historian, informed Al Jazeera.

Pakistan, which got here to the threshold of struggle with India within the aftermath of the February bombing in the Pulwama district of Indian-administered Kashmir this yr, criticised the Indian crew for “politicising” the sport.

“We accept as true with that cricket and sports must not be used for politics and we’ve got said this very truly,” the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman, Ehsan Mani, stated at the same time as revealing that he had lodged a proper protest in a letter to the International Cricket Council (ICC).

“Their [India] credibility in the cricketing global has gone down very badly.”