Shake it Please

 

“Shake it please”, is the most common shout in the game of Tambola also referred to as Housie. A game played generally by oldies in Army clubs or even in picnics when there were no mobiles. The person hosting the game is the obliged to shake the numerals in the box for an even distribution of numbers being called. Although the callers are actually just hoping that the Shake would result in their number magically appearing in the hands of the host to call.  The there is the “Hips don’t lie” ,Shake it like Shakira, here it is the booty which when shaken raises not just a storm but a lot more which just can’t be satiated with just any shake. I mean fruit or milk shake etc.

All this shaking that I am referring to is due to the storm in the tea cup as Indian Cricket Team did not shake the hands of their opponents, the Pakistan Cricket Team after the T20 match in the recent Asia Cup. This hand shake is an unwritten custom and like all customs it is not binding, however a deliberate act of refusal is a snub. The wave of patriotism which engulfed the nation after OP SINDOOR elicited boycott calls for the match itself. The fact is that we decided to finally play,  despite the reservations expressed openly by millions and the govt also did not put any strictures on the Team or BCCI per se. But Cricket stars are celebrities, you would have noticed I deliberately addressed them as stars and not players, as they are no different from our bollywood ones. These stars thrive in publicity and public adoration so they had to indulge in some gimmickry. There are a number of ways in which sportsperson express their angst, black bands, ‘taking the knee ‘ or raising a fist etc.        To be fair, there are obligations of the national sports bodies to adhere to the  rules regulations and fixtures etc of the international   federations, failing which penalties are normally imposed on the the defaulting Team, which could result in disqualification, or even for subsequent       events. As we lost the opportunity to win a historic Davis Cup back in 1974, when as a protest against apartheid practised by South Africa we refused to play the finals, despite being favourites to win as Amritraj brothers were at their peak then. But here the situation was different, there was nothing at stake actually, a refusal to play would not have effected our chances of reaching the finals. Yes we may have had to face them again in finals but then there was a chance given the current form of the rivals, they wouldn’t have made it through. So BCCI and Team India would have emerged as having expressed their solidarity with the sentiments prevalent in the country.  Imagine even a drubbing of the kind inflicted on the Pakis hasn’t cooled the tempers. The other issue is once the call had been taken to play, then this post match drama did not assuage the feeling of collective hurt . As it is the Shake itself is generally quite fake, with no warmth just a perfunctory ritualistic act. During the game the kind of sledging which goes on, can hardly be described as sportsmanship. Cricket in fact has started to resemble WWE,  like the World Wrestling Entertainment specially the T20 version. Homage to the deceased in the Pahalgam cowardly terrorist act has to come from the heart, mere lip service won’t do and my earnest request to the BCCI and Indian Cricket Team is to refrain from such tokenism. So go ahead and shake it for all we care.