Sports should unite people, not divide them

Cricket, they say, is a gentleman's game. Yet last Sunday, the Asia Cup final descended into a farce that brought the sport into disrepute.

- BY REX CLEMENTINE

Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav pretends to carry a trophy after the Asian Cricket Council refused to hand the Indian team the Asia Cup. This was following India's refusal to receive the trophy from ACC Chairman who is also the President of PCB.

The contest itself was riveting, with India grinding out a hard-fought win over Pakistan, but what followed was anything but cricket. You see such antics only in street corner scraps, not in international showpieces. Both sides should hang their heads in shame.

Sri Lanka's late Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, himself a cricketer, once said: "Politicians divide nations, cricketers unite nations." Sadly, India and Pakistan cricketers have turned that maxim on its head.