India Touring Sr Lanka: Courageous Step or Foolish Mistake?

As the Indian team gears up to face the rejuvenated Sri Lankans, cricket has taken somewhat of a backseat. Critics argue that the team shouldn't have agreed to tour Sri Lanka due to the government being on war with the Tamils. I think that is just bullshit.

People keep forgetting that these 15 Indian representatives haven’t gone over to the war ridden island to sit with government officials to sort out political conflicts. These 15 men are sportsmen, India’s 15 best cricketers to be precise, who have crossed Indian Ocean to play for their country and make their countrymen proud.

Their main job is to play cricket and provide entertainment for their fans. If BCCI had canceled the tour like it did the tour of Pakistan (who were also abandoned by the Australians and South Africans last year for a test series and the Champions Trophy respectively) then soon the cricketing world would be just left with India, Australia, South Africa, and England. These four would make the first of two tiers of teams.

West Indies has been on a decline for over a decade, New Zealand after losing potentially great players to the ICL have started to decline and the PCB has hardly been able to convince other cricketing administrations to tour their land.

Adding Sri Lanka to that list would deprive the pleasure of watching great players compete against handy competition. These teams would make the second tier along with Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and Ireland. This would be atrocious for a cricket fan such as me.

On the other hand, I can understand where some critics are coming from. The cricketers are in a little danger going to country which has been in civil war for some time now. But nowadays where in the world can you go where you are in no danger at all?

Countries like the mighty USA and UK are always worried about attacks. India itself had a terrible attack just over two months ago and yet they wanted England to come back and continue the tour, which they did. If England could do that then surely India can support its southern neighbor and not abandon them too, as it has Pakistan.

There it is. Those are my feelings and I consider the decision of India to tour Sri Lanka a truly courageous step and I applaud them for that.