Sport transcends religion, leave it alone

AN English bowler, Ted Wainwright, said of the great Ranjitsinhji: “Ranji, he never made a Christian stroke in his life.”

Charles Fry, Ranjitsinhji’s friend and captain at Sussex, believed Ranji’s distinctive strokes were due to “a combination of perfect poise and the quickness peculiar to the athletic Hindu”.

It’s all rubbish, really — there’s no Christian stroke or Hindu quickness or, for that matter, Muslim reverse-swing. It can be safely assumed that both Wainwright and Fry were not really referring to Ranji’s religion — and that, in the idiom of their day, they were overflowing with “Oriental” clichés.

Sport is secular. What god or gods you believe in — or don’t believe in — plays no role in how you perform. Bob Woolmer’s atheism didn’t prevent him from trying his best with a deeply religious Pakistani cricket team. John Wright, born in a Christian family, and an enthusiastic choir boy as a child, did his best to coach an Indian team that had players from different religious backgrounds.

‘Religion poisons everything’ — that’s the sub-title of a book by Christopher Hitchens, the atheist writer and polemicist. In India, it seems that there are clear attempts to poison cricket, too, with religious hatred.

Wasim Jaffer, who played 31 Test matches for India, is Muslim. So is Zaheer Khan or Mohammed Siraj, the emerging fast bowler. Sachin Tendulkar is Hindu. Shubman Gill is Sikh. Virat Kohli is from a family of Hindus, but is “non religious”.

Big deal! Sport transcends religion. Sportspersons know it well. They know a player must perform, whichever god he does or doesn’t bow down to.

It’s no surprise, then, that it’s a cricket administrator who has poured poison into cricket.

Jaffer, who had an excellent career lasting over two decades, winning several Ranji Trophy titles with Mumbai and Vidarbha, resigned his position as Uttarakhand’s coach recently. He alleged that the Cricket Association of Uttarakhand (CAU) secretary and selectors had been “pushing non-deserving players” for selection into the state team. His resignation letter suggested that the CAU’s affairs were run in an unprofessional manner.

Immediately after that, CAU fired a salvo at Jaffer — its secretary alleged that Jaffer was making “religion-based” selections. He alleged that Jaffer was trying to “break the team through religious activities”. As if on cue, the team’s manager added allegations of his own — that Jaffer used to call “maulvis” for Friday prayers at the team’s camp, and changed the team’s religion-based slogan to “Go Uttarakhand”.

Later, Jaffer denied the allegations, and said that it was a very painful episode for him. “The communal angle that has been brought up, that is very, very sad,” Jaffer said.

“Had I been communal, both Samad Fallah and Mohammad Nazim would have played all the games. It’s a very petty thing to say, or even think,” he said.

It’s terrible that a cricketer and coach has to explain this.

Social media erupted in a battle on the issue. There were several voices in support of Jaffer, too. CAU’s secretary then began to backtrack, saying he never knew of any allegation of communal bias against Jaffer.

So all this trouble was over nothing? No. It’s likely that the CAU secretary, who has inherited control of the association from his father, has been unnerved by his own wild allegation. And it is also possible that Sourav Ganguly, BCCI’s president, had a quiet word with him.

Among his brother cricketers, few dared to stand up for Jaffer — not his India captains Sachin Tendulkar, Ganguly and Rahul Dravid. Anil Kumble, his coaching partner at IPL team KXIP, was one of the few players who supported him, the others being Manoj Tiwary and Dodda Ganesh. Ajinkya Rahane, who has shared long partnerships with Jaffer for Mumbai, said he had “no idea” about the issue.

Jaffer’s prominent Mumbai teammates Sanjay Manjrekar — known for often saying the right thing — or Tendulkar kept their silence.

Clearly, even the ‘God’ of cricket is not necessarily a good friend to a man in need. A good straight-drive doesn’t make you a great human being.