If India had boycotted Pak match, it could have won T20 World Cup

 

Indian Cricket team has defeated New Zealand 3:0 in T20 series. It clearly shows the class and form of Indian Cricket team. The series was conducted only a few days after T20 World Cup was over. What does this series and India’s excellent performance in it tells about India’s bad performance in T20 World Cup?

I think it tells that India's defeat from NW during T20 WC was only because of morale issue since it had lost from Pak team in first match. It is a sane argument that if India had boycotted Pak match, it could have won World Cup.

India was best team predicted to win T20 World Cup. Still, its first match was with Pakistan. As per the maths, India did not need to win against Pakistan to be able to qualify for Semi Finals. Even if it boycotted that match and won against NZ, it would have gone to Semi Finals. Therefore, India could have afforded to boycott that match, protesting against Pakistan sponsored terrorism. But, team management did not boycott.

Secondly, India started its game against Pakistan with a “take the knee” gesture to support violent protests which happened in the USA. This political gesture was not needed even before our players had put their feet on the ground of their World Cup campaign. The players should have only “winning” on their mind when they entered a game, not any political agenda. Someone must question the team management which made our Cricket team act like political agents making a political gesture making use of a Sports event!

Now, think about the reasons the BCCI gave for not boycotting our match with Pak. If you say that Sports did not have anything to do with politics and Sports and politics were two isolated matters, why was our team made to "take the knee" to support a political movement of another country? Is it not hypocritical? It is clear that our Cricket team was made to support a political cause, but just a foreign cause and not our cause. What can be more illogical and hypocritical than this? Why should our Cricket team stand and make gesture for political cause of another country, but not do anything for political cause of our country? Why should not the human rights violations in Pak occupied Kashmir and thousands of people harmed and affected by Pak sponsored terrorism matter, but an American political movement matter in the eyes of BCCI? I am really surprised that government has not taken any action on this matter. 

To summarize, I think that India’s loss against NZ in T20 WC was only due to morale issue after losing against Pakistan for the first time in World Cup history; and our loss could have been avoided. This exit from World Cup is going to haunt Indian team for some time and I think we only have a political leadership of BCCI to blame for missing this T20 World Cup despite being the best team. 

- Rahul Tiwary