Pak Cricket Team Overcomes Dry Spell But Can India Overcome Intolerance?

The number 13 may be a bit daunting for a lot of people, but for the Pakistani Men's cricket team, turns out 13th time's the charm!

After a 29-year-long dry spell of losing all of the 12 previous ICC World Cup matches against India Pakistan's cricket team turned the tide for themselves and how!

Until 24th October, India had seven wins in 50-over World cup matches and five wins in 20-over matches against Pakistan, but Babar Azam became the first Pakistani captain to lead his team to an emphatic victory over India by 10 wickets, in a men's ICC World Cup event.

Our men in blue are no doubt a formidable lot, with an incredible record backing them, which is why perhaps the outcome at Dubai International Stadium was rather unexpected. But in the spirit of sportsmanship most of our listeners will agree that it was quite an enthralling match to watch, nonetheless.

Humbly accepting defeat at the post-match presser, skipper Virat Kohli said that credit goes where credit's due, but the Indian cricket team is aware of where it faulted and will be moving forward in a positive way.

To understand what put team India in the back foot, we spoke to sports commentator and analyst Mr Chandresh Narayan in this episode.

We also speak to Mr Hemant Buch, a broadcast consultant who's managed LIVE sports broadcast around cricket, about the Pakistani cricket team and how they managed to break the jinx.

But losing a game more often than not, ends up taking an intolerant route in the country.

We saw team members of the women's hockey team being subjected to casteist slurs online after the lost the quarterfinals in Tokyo Olympics. And similarly, since last night's loss, there have been several reports of Kashmiri students being harassed. Indian bowler Mohammed Shami has found himself to be the target of hate messages and trolling on social media platforms.

For our third guest, we speak to Seema Chishti, a writer and journalist based in Delhi about how sports getting co-opted into jingoistic and nationalistic politics can stand to harm the game itself.

Tune in!

Host and Producer: Shorbori Purkayastha

Guest: Chandresh Narayan, Sports Commentator and Analyst Hemant Buch, Broadcast consultant Seema Chishti, Writer and Journalist

Editor: Vaishali Sood

Music: Big Bang Fuzz

References:

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