England are right to go back. Cricket has to bow to reality. Anybody far away from home, however hospitable the conditions, needs to feel happy and wanted. You cannot live in an atmosphere of helplessness. If I was in a country where armed terrorists were searching for people who carry the same passport I do, I would be on the next flight home. Similarly India must not go to Pakistan and I say so aware of how wonderfully hospitable the people of Pakistan have been in the past. But this is not about you and me, our views, our relationships. It is about sinister people.

It has been said that boycotting tours would play into the hands of those that seek to disrupt; that playing on would be akin to thumbing our nose at them. But sportsmen have bats and hockey sticks, and sometimes just a quick pair of legs. They are entertainers. And even in our part of the world, cricket must grow insignificant at times. It is a game that brings a lot of joy and cheer and optimism, but it is just a game. It cannot compete with war. If you can, do tell me this is different; that this isn’t war by another name.

What a pity though. Sport is one of the very very few things that can still unite people and bring a smile to the lips; that can help some of us forget reality, that can make us children again. Delightfully impish and irrational. Maybe art can do that; and literature. And certainly music. But sport goes beyond. It invokes competition, it reminds us of who we are. We grow passionate and we compete and imagine we are sportsmen too. We score every run they do and take every wicket they do and smile sheepishly at our wives when we return the remote some hours later.

... contd.