‘We Should Have Shaken Hands’: Shashi Tharoor On India’s Asia Cup Snub To Pakistan

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor (File photo/PTI)

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Thursday said the spirit of a game should be kept separate from politics and military conflicts, as he reflected on Indian cricketers refusing to shake hands with Pakistani players after their recent match in the ongoing T20 Asia Cup.

Speaking to news agency ANI, Tharoor also said that India should not have played against Pakistan if we felt so strongly about them.

“I personally feel that once the decision had been made to play, if we feel so strongly about Pakistan, we should not have played,” the Congress MP said.

“But, if we are going to play them, we should play in the spirit of a game, and we should have shaken their hands,” he said.

“We have done this before in 1999, when the Kargil War was going on. On the very day the soldiers were dying for our country, we were playing the World Cup in England against Pakistan. We were shaking their hands even then because the spirit of the game is a different spirit from what goes on between countries, between Armies and so on. That is my view,” Tharoor said.

The senior Congress leader further remarked that the reactions from both sides showed a lack of sportsmanship.

“If the Pakistani team, having been insulted the first time, decided to insult us back the second time, it shows that the spirit of the game is lacking on both sides,” he added.

As the Asia Cup match concluded, Indian skipper Suryakumar Yadav and his batting partner Shivam Dube walked off the field without shaking hands with the Pakistan team.

Later, the skipper dedicated the win to the Indian armed forces, while expressing solidarity with the Pahalgam victims.

With the match being the first between the two nations since the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack and consequent launch of ‘Operation Sindoor’ by the Indian armed forces against Pakistan-sponsored terror, Team India faced backlash for going ahead with the match in the multi-nation tournament, but restricted Pakistan to 127/9.

India won both their group stage matches against the UAE and Pakistan. They defeated the UAE by nine wickets and Pakistan by seven wickets, batting second in both encounters.