RedwoodOriginal
Senior T20I Player
- Joined
- Jul 8, 2018
- Runs
- 19,628
- Post of the Week
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There’s been a lot of debate about the upcoming Kashmir Premier League set to be played in Muzaffarabad. Most of this revolves around whether the league is political or not. But the way I see it, all this debate has ignored the very obvious fact that the league is already a massive success before it has even begun and has by far exceeded any expectations anyone ever had from it.
Now there are two ways you can choose to look at this. One is the idea that this is a genuine attempt to unearth talent from Kashmir. Whereas the other is that this is a political ploy by Pakistan. I’ve made my position clear on other threads so I won’t bother stating it here. But let’s look at the two arguments separately.
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If this was a genuine attempt to unearth talent from Kashmir than I don’t see how that has changed with the foreign players not playing. The Kashmiri players will still get to share a dressing room with international stars whether its Afridi, Imad Wasim or Mohammad Hafeez. All that’s really changed now is that India has given the league (that might not have even been talked about) unprecedented PR. Which is something the organizers couldn’t have imagined in their wildest dreams.
On the other hand, if this was [hypothetically] a political ploy by Pakistan than I don’t see how it hasn’t been a roaring success. Assuming that was the reason this league was created, wouldn’t getting a reaction out of India be the primary aim? Well, India hasn’t just given a reaction but also blackmailed several players and cricketing boards thereby showing that BCCI are exactly the bullies that everyone makes them out to be. Before India started talking about KPL, nobody had even co-related it with the Kashmir issue. But now cricketers like Panesar are making that connection which indirectly strengthens Pakistan foreign policy aim to keeping the Kashmir issue alive in the international consciousness.
On top of that, one could argue that India is the one who made this a political issue by bringing the ICC into it and asking them to look into the league eventhough the ICC has no jurisdiction over cricket leagues taking place in member nations.
Which ever way you choose to spin it, its hard to ignore these obvious realities. If it was started as a political ploy than it was remarkably subtle because there’s no way to prove that it was a political ploy as ICC wasn’t involved in any way by Pakistan, nor did it have any major advertising/promotion in Pakistan or international markets, that are home to Pakistani diasporas. Compare this to something like India asking the ICC to remove Pakistan from the World Cup and there is a very clear and obvious difference.
Meanwhile Kashmiri talent will still get a chance to rub shoulders with big international names and still get unprecedented exposure. The Muzaffarabad Cricket Stadium will host matches which may possibly even open the door for more matches to be hosted there. All of which is a positive development for cricket in Kashmir.
Now there are two ways you can choose to look at this. One is the idea that this is a genuine attempt to unearth talent from Kashmir. Whereas the other is that this is a political ploy by Pakistan. I’ve made my position clear on other threads so I won’t bother stating it here. But let’s look at the two arguments separately.
-------
If this was a genuine attempt to unearth talent from Kashmir than I don’t see how that has changed with the foreign players not playing. The Kashmiri players will still get to share a dressing room with international stars whether its Afridi, Imad Wasim or Mohammad Hafeez. All that’s really changed now is that India has given the league (that might not have even been talked about) unprecedented PR. Which is something the organizers couldn’t have imagined in their wildest dreams.
On the other hand, if this was [hypothetically] a political ploy by Pakistan than I don’t see how it hasn’t been a roaring success. Assuming that was the reason this league was created, wouldn’t getting a reaction out of India be the primary aim? Well, India hasn’t just given a reaction but also blackmailed several players and cricketing boards thereby showing that BCCI are exactly the bullies that everyone makes them out to be. Before India started talking about KPL, nobody had even co-related it with the Kashmir issue. But now cricketers like Panesar are making that connection which indirectly strengthens Pakistan foreign policy aim to keeping the Kashmir issue alive in the international consciousness.
On top of that, one could argue that India is the one who made this a political issue by bringing the ICC into it and asking them to look into the league eventhough the ICC has no jurisdiction over cricket leagues taking place in member nations.
Which ever way you choose to spin it, its hard to ignore these obvious realities. If it was started as a political ploy than it was remarkably subtle because there’s no way to prove that it was a political ploy as ICC wasn’t involved in any way by Pakistan, nor did it have any major advertising/promotion in Pakistan or international markets, that are home to Pakistani diasporas. Compare this to something like India asking the ICC to remove Pakistan from the World Cup and there is a very clear and obvious difference.
Meanwhile Kashmiri talent will still get a chance to rub shoulders with big international names and still get unprecedented exposure. The Muzaffarabad Cricket Stadium will host matches which may possibly even open the door for more matches to be hosted there. All of which is a positive development for cricket in Kashmir.
) But if India wants to become United States of Cricket, there's a lot more to lose in the long term than gain.
