Watch | Refusing to Shake Hands With Pakistan 'Violated the Spirit of Cricket'; Obviously Govt Was Involved

Two of the world’s best known and most highly regarded former sports editors and authoritative cricket commentators have spoken about the Indian cricket team’s refusal to shake hands with the Pakistani side in Colombo last weekend.

Mihir Bose, the former BBC Sports Editor and author of The Nine Waves: The Extraordinary Story of How India Took Over the Cricket World says this “violated the spirit of cricket”. He says: “It shows an immature country, it shows what a young boy would do, not a country which is claiming to be a world power that’s going to rise to the heights of glory and economic strength.”

Asked if Surya Kumar Yadav, the Indian captain, had behaved like a gentleman when he refused to shake hands with his Pakistani counterpart after the toss, Bose said: “He didn’t behave like a gentleman. He behaved like a man who was under some sort of political instruction.”

In the accompanying interview, Ayaz Memon, the well-known former editor of Sportsweek, author and cricket commentator, said that the Indian team’s refusal to shake hands with the Pakistani side “diminished” what he calls the ethos or spirit of cricket. Memon also said that he believes that this decision was “obviously” taken at the behest of the Indian government because he finds it hard to accept that the BCCI would take this decision on its own.

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