There was a general impression that the India-Pakistan relationship had plumbed the depths and could only get better. The peace initiative by the Jang group and the Times of India group was especially heartening. Low-hanging fruit like sporting contacts appeared to be ripe for the picking. But this week, the fruit tantalisingly slipped out of reach. The unanimous decision of all eight IPL franchises not to bid for any Pakistani players for this year’s edition showed that regressive forces still reign supreme. As a cricket fan, I was looking forward to the Pakistanis playing in the event, hoping that they would be chosen by the Chennai Super Kings or indeed by any other team. The signs were ominous when Shahid Afridi, the first name pulled out of the hat, invited no takers, and it was not the exception but the rule as we soon discovered. However much Lalit Modi tries to rationalise the outcome, the sheen has been taken off the tournament.

Pakistan is, by a distance, the best T20 team in world cricket and, unlike some other countries, does not have any international fixtures overlapping with the IPL. Its players would under normal circumstances have been in high demand. The Pakistani government had issued a no-objection certificate and the Indian government had issued visas to all Pakistani players who went under the hammer. These were insisted upon by the IPL in advance of the auction and justifiably so. The franchises, however, were not persuaded that they would turn up to play in India despite the clearances already obtained, a position bereft of common sense. Barring another terror attack from Pakistani soil, it’s hard to believe that either government would have thrown an eleventh-hour spanner in the works after having facilitated the inclusion of Pakistani players in the auction. They would have everything to lose by raising an objection after players are signed up and thereby explicitly appropriating the role of spoilsport.

Of course, if there’s another terror attack in the next couple of months, all bets are off, but even in such an eventuality, it should still be possible for teams to sign up late replacements who are not going to turn their noses up at the opportunity of making several thousand extra bucks. That is exactly what some teams did last year. It’s more likely though that in the event of another terror attack most foreign players will cry off, making all of them, not just Pakistanis, a risky investment. While franchises have the right to focus exclusively on the bottom line without being concerned about the political or diplomatic fallout, in this case their collective decision is dubious even if seen as a purely commercial judgement. It’s not as if they were going to be taking a massive punt on the Pakistani players. If it was a punt at all, it was a low risk one but with potentially high returns. Umar Gul has immensely more to offer than Kemar Roach. Buying Roach for $720,000 is a much riskier investment and whoever did so, ought to have his, or possibly her, head examined.

One can imagine a few franchises being obtuse but given that all eight behaved similarly, it is bound to provide fertile ground for conspiracy theories. However, there’s nothing to indicate that the Indian government informally asked the franchises not to sign up Pakistani players. If it did so, the franchises would have every reason to advertise the fact if only to appear less retarded. But the government is guilty of an error of omission, if not commission. Since the silence it maintained was apparently mistaken for ambiguity and failed to give the franchises adequate reassurance, there is a case for it to have been more active in dispelling those concerns, even if they were largely imaginary, rather than washing its hands off the matter after granting the visas. The importance of distinguishing between those in Pakistani society who are hostile to India and those who want to engage with India and of going out of the way to encourage the latter constituency cannot be overstated. Sport is one of the few instruments we have at the moment to repair the present state of the relationship. Getting Indians to root for and identify with Pakistanis playing for local franchises helps to blur the us-vs-them distinction and create a more inclusive worldview. It would have initiated the process of healing the wounds of 26/11 and returning to the state that we were on 25/11.

The stars were aligned for India to send a powerful signal that it has nothing against Pakistan but only against a specific section of Pakistanis who seek to prosecute terror against India. Instead the opposite signal has been unwittingly despatched which will no doubt reinforce hardline elements across the border. As Abba Eban almost said, the Indians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.

Does this mean that the desire for peace is naive? No, but it is clearer than ever that it has to be a bottom-up enterprise driven by civil society and the significance of initiatives like the one by the Jang group and the Times of India group is magnified rather than diminished by the events of this week. The ICC World Twenty20 begins five days after the end of the IPL and if it’s any consolation to the Pakistani players, there’s no correlation between playing in the IPL and winning the World Twenty20 as they showed last year. Given the injustice done to them, it’s hard to resist the temptation to support Pakistan in the World Twenty20.

The writer is a freelance contributor based in Chennai. Email: sankhya@gmail.com