External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar used a cricket analogy to explain India’s foreign policy towards Pakistan, saying it has moved from the “traditional side-on position” to an “open-chested position”. Speaking at an event on the release of Mohinder Amarnath’s memoir ‘Fearless’, Jaishankar referred to the former cricketer’s views on India’s cricket tour to Pakistan in 1982-83.
“You said you played them better because from the traditional side-on position, you now move to an open-chested position. I couldn’t have found a better description for a Pakistan policy that time,” Jaishankar said.
In the 1982 tour, India lost 3-0 to Pakistan in a six-Test match series. Apart from Amarnath, the Indian side featured cricketing legends like Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar.
The Union Minister also drew intriguing parallels between cricket and the evolution of India’s foreign policy, and called the team’s World Cup victory in 1983 as the “inflection point”.
“It was not just the inflection point, but the man of the match of the inflection point. Pakistan won it at one point and Sri Lanka won it at one point. But nowhere else was it as big an inflection point as it was in the history of cricket. Because, if you look at India’s role in world cricket after 1983, it fundamentally changed,” Jaishankar said.
He also highlighted that while the world was intensely competitive, respect had to be earned. This aspect was also explained by Jaishankar using a cricketing incident. “So the same Clive Lloyd in 1976, who did not spare any of you from body line bowling, was also the fielding captain who was generous enough to declare that pitch unfit in 1983. And that, in many ways, was respect earned,” he said.
Jaishankar, known for his extraordinary sharpness and efficiency on the diplomatic pitch, said foreign policy was more like cricket rather than chess.
“It is like cricket because, first, there are many players. Two, the playing conditions keep varying. Playing at home and playing abroad are very different. You are at the umpire’s whims at times. There are many formats. And at the end of the day, a lot of it is about psychology, trying to outthink the other team, trying to get into their heads. That every time you go out there to do your business, it is actually that competitive spirit that you tell yourself, I have to win this,” the External Affairs Minister said.
