It was like getting hit by a Shoaib Akhtar bouncer. When newspapers reported that the Union home ministry had informally advised the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to postpone the Indian team’s tour to Pakistan till the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections were over, India was stunned.

Cricket-lovers, eagerly anticipating a lip-smacking clash between the two passionate, long-standing rivals, were dismayed at this vicious googly. But, frankly, the decision had far more to do with politics than cricket. In fact, the whole episode had all the ingredients of a John Grisham thriller: doublespeak, intrigue, manoeuvre, strategy. Or, even a keenly contested one-day game with plenty of hard-hitting and the right result.

The Telegraph maps out the controversy which ultimately led to the cricket tour getting the government’s final seal of approval.

TOSS OF THE COIN

The origin of any imbroglio is always hard to trace. More so, when sporting reasons are only a masquerade for political motives. But the first linkages of the forthcoming Indo-Pak cricket tour with the impending Lok Sabha elections can be traced back to Andhra Pradesh chief minister . Chandrababu Naidu. In the last week of January, doubts about the appropriate timing of the cricket series sprung up in Naidu’s mind when, during a phone-in Dial Your Chief Minister programme, a Telugu Desam Party (TDP) worker cautioned him about the adverse effects that cricket could have on the party’s poll prospects. His worry: supporters might stay at home watching cricket causing a low turn-out at the polls. Consequently, in the first week of February, the TDP supremo decided to take up the matter with the Centre and the Election Commission.

Interestingly, around the same time there was a change in India’s fortunes on the cricket pitch. In early February, Ganguly’s boys suffered two crushing defeats at the hands of Australia in the finals of the one-day triangular series. The dates: February 6 and 8.

The defeats came at a time when the India Shining campaign, worth over Rs 100 crore, was in full flow. And, the BJP leaders had started using the phrase ‘feel good’ in every speech and press conference. The defeats were in disharmony to the nation’s so-called feel-good mood.

Around this time several senior Indian cricketers were also expressing off-the-record security concerns to the BCCI on the approaching Pakistan tour. A three-member BCCI delegation was on a reconnaissance mission to Pakistan; one of them being Intelligence Bureau’s joint director (security) Yashovardhan Azad, BJP leader and national cricket selector Kirti Azad’s brother.

But the cricketers’ anxiety became a handy tool for the hardline section of the BJP which was also discussing the side-effects of an Indian defeat in Pakistan on the polls. The general view was that it would impact the feel good factor negatively. It was at this juncture that the home ministry’s views on the tour started making their appearance in the media.

A senior BJP minister says, “There was some tentative thinking on those lines. But those were just general misgivings.” Apparently, the ministry wanted the tour to be postponed till the polls were over, to ensure that a possible defeat in cricket did not mar the feel good effect. However, the reason proffered was players’ security.

But since the home ministry did not have enough ammunition to drive its point home, it tried to get the BCCI to postpone the tour. But, for a number of reasons, the BCCI was unwilling to play ball.

First, once the tour was postponed till the polls, expected to be held in April-May, then the Test series was as good as off. It would have been impossible to play five-day long Test matches in the searing heat of May. “Only a few one-dayers could have been played under the floodlights,” says a BCCI source. Second, BCCI boss Jagmohan Dalmiya, often at loggerheads with the ICC, the world cricket body, has hitched his wagon to the Asian solidarity plank.

A full tour to Pakistan is crucial to the BCCI’s scheme of things. That apart, if the Indian cricket body cancelled the tour on its own, it would have had to pay a hefty amount as fine. Across the border, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), in danger of losing an estimated 20 million dollars, had warned that it might consider demanding compensation or suing the BCCI, if the tour was cancelled.

With so much at stake, Dalmiya was unwilling to, as he said, “let anyone fire the gun” from his shoulders. He wanted the home ministry to put across its views, whatever they were, officially.

PLAYING THE GAME

This was one dimension of a multi-faceted story. Parallel to these developments, there was hectic lobbying between a pro-tour lobby and an anti-tour lobby. The stance taken by these lobbyists was determined by their individual stakes in particular and political stakes in general.

It is believed that senior BJP leader Pramod Mahajan was a part of the anti-tour lobby. Egged on by a key player in Maharashtra politics, he was among those who did not think that the tour was a great idea in the view of the coming elections and had talks with Dalmiya in this regard. Advani’s views came out through the media. But, interestingly, he did not make any official statement.

The BCCI had its own men in the arena. The BCCI is a cricket body but top politicians — .K.P. Salve and the late Madhav Rao Scindia to name a couple — have always been associated with it. These days it has Union commerce and law minister Arun Jaitley and Congress MP Rajiv Shukla in its ranks. Jaitley is the president of Delhi District Cricket Association and Shukla, known for his proximity to the powerful, is the chairman of the BCCI’s media co-ordination committee.

Among those prominent in the pro-tour lobby were Dalmiya, Shukla and Jaitley. After India’s Natwest trophy triumph in England in 2002, Dalmiya and Shukla met Vajpayee and urged him to help restore Indo-Pak cricket ties.

In the following months, the trio met external affairs minister Yashwant Sinha thrice over the same matter. The lobbying helped resumption of cricket ties between the two countries find a place in the list of confidence-building measures announced by India last October.

It is believed Jaitley is not averse to becoming BCCI president in future. And, for him, this was an opportunity to show he can get things done. Sources say that the Union commerce and law minister also roped in Union minister of state for sports and youth affairs, Vijay Goel, who is close to the Prime Minister. National security adviser Brajesh Mishra too was reportedly in favour of the tour because calling it off would have sent the wrong signals internationally. And Yashwant Sinha, whose external affairs ministry had cleared the tour earlier, obviously was in favour of the tour.

The lobbyists came from the other side of the fence as well. Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf sent an emissary, in the shape of Friday Times editor, Najam Sethi. The latter met Vajpayee and urged him not to cancel the tour.

GOING TO RACE COURSE road

So, when the men who matter — Vajpayee, Advani, finance minister Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha and principal secretary Mishra — sat down to discuss the matter, the pro-tour lobby had the upper hand. The meeting started at 10 am at 7, Race Course Road, the Prime Minister’s residence, on February 14.

With Vajpayee, Sinha and Mishra in favour of the tour, the Union home minister, incidentally the biggest cricket fan in that room, someone who even stays up at night to watch crunch games, was left with no option but to concur. Apparently, the Prime Minister wanted the tour to be on in any form. For any postponement would have been a setback to the peace process with Pakistan, a key factor in his politics. “After all, it was at his initiative that the tour had been cleared in the first place,” says a senior BJP minister. “You can’t make monkey of the PM’s initiative.” Whether the tour was shortened, or not, did not matter to the PM. He just wanted India to go ahead with the tour.

A source said that Advani told other leaders in the meeting that he was sad at being painted as an anti-tour hawk. “The home minister also said: I am the one who calls up our boys whenever they play well. I called the Pakistan team over for dinner,” the source said.

Interestingly, after the crisis had blown over, the home minister met Indian captain Sourav Ganguly at Sahara boss Subroto Roy’s wedding in Lucknow and said, “Now everything is okay, the tour is on.” In a public statement later he said, “I am sometimes surprised as to how in this issue (Indo-Pak cricket), the home ministry has come into the picture and why.”

Yet, there is a school of thought which believes that Advani did not end up on the losing side. They feel that the deputy Prime Minister Advani, known for his hardline approach vis-a-vis Pakistan, was sending out a message to his own constituency that he had not wavered from the tough approach.

EVERYBODY WINS

Now everybody seems happy. The Prime Minister and the BCCI are pleased because the tour is on. Advani is glad because he has made his point. In a Cabinet committee meeting on Saturday, it was decided that a chief security officer and two liaison security officers will be sent with the Indian team. In all probability, the tour will be over before the elections; so the political parties are happy. Persistent security concerns notwithstanding, the cricketers too are ready to go.

In Pakistan, PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan too has expressed his delight. As BCCI communication director Amrit Mathur, who was part of BCCI's reconnaissance trio, says, “There is great enthusiasm in Pakistan. People are eagerly waiting for the matches to be played.”

With so much expectation, the tour will be a big media extravaganza as well. “An overall Rs 250 crore worth of total advertising will be spent,” says Harish Thawani, chairman, Nimbus, a leading sports marketing company. Companies will spend Rs 1,50,000 for a 10-second television commercial.

But unlike the World Cup, 2003, when the newspapers were full of contests and tour packages, the buzz is missing. An element of uncertainty over the exact dates and itinerary of the tour has played spoilsport. “In different circumstances, there could have been many more spin-offs,” says Latika Khaneja, who manages top Indian cricketers such as Virender Sehwag and Aashish Nehra.

However, the cricket-loving public cannot care less. All they want is just another edition of the Shoaib Akhtar-Sachin Tendulkar duel.

Batting lineup

Atal Bihari Vajpayee:

The Prime Minister played a captain’s knock to steer the team, er... tour, out of trouble.

L.K. Advani:

The Union home minister’s googly was deftly driven by his rivals.

Yashwant sinha:

The Union external affairs minister’s consistent line and length helped the pro-tour lobbyists.

Arun Jaitley:

The Union law minister batted well for the pro-tour lobby, especially in the final overs.

Pramod Mahajan:

Egged on by a Maharashtra politician, he tried hard but his troublesome deliveries were handled with a straight bat.

Shaharyar Khan:

Initially dismayed at the way the game was progressing, the PCB chairman was delighted to end up on the subcontinent’s winning side.

Sourav Ganguly:

Security concerns notwithstanding, the Indian cricket captain has shown a willingness to bat for his country.

Jagmohon Dalmiya

The BCCI boss made an important contribution to his side, holding firm under tremendous pressure.