A new pitch had been laid out at Srinagar’s Sher-e-Kashmir stadium, and the return of Ranji matches to the city had generated considerable excitement. But the Jammu and Kashmir team and local spectators will have to wait a while longer, till November 10, to inaugurate it, when Haryana travel for the next tie. For now, the hosts have got a walkover, because the Services team failed to show up in Kashmir for their scheduled match. And in the meanwhile, if there is anger raging through the J&K Cricket Association, and presumably amongst cricket fans in the state, it is more than understandable. There is no cop-out in sport, especially cricket, more impolite than failing to show up on the field — as happened with the Services squad Tuesday. And to do so without giving a reason, as the Services are alleged to have done, is unforgivable.

The BCCI immediately responded to the outrage by barring Services from the 2009-10 Ranji season. That punishment is too light, however, as the circumstances of the forfeiture make clear. As Farooq Abdullah, president of the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association and a leading politician of the state, asked, “What message do the Services want to send out? Do they want to say Kashmir is not normal?” The Services team represents the armed forces, and therefore the questions that Abdullah asks are automatically put to the forces and to the defence ministry. What were these extraordinary circumstances that prevented the Services team from showing up? Who, in the Services Sports Control Board or in the ministry, cleared the no-show? Surely there is a chain of accountability. Whatever be the reasons for the forfeiture, the Services team has sent out a larger message about the armed forces’ view of normal activity in the Valley. If the forces in fact do not subscribe to such a message — and it is hoped, assumed even, that they don’t — they will have to follow up Tuesday’s incident with a proper response.

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