No petty politics please

From genuine concerns about safety of the players, the issue of India's tour to Pakistan is now degenerating into the utterly ridiculous. Every morning, we are assailed by news reports quoting phantom sources in the Indian Home Ministry pouring confusion over the status of the tour. Diplomacy, which cleared the ground for a potentially historic tour, is once again in danger of being overwhelmed by narrow political interests, and the atmosphere is turning unhealthy.

At this point, having coming so far, there can no other reason for cancellation, postponement and shifting of venues other than security, and yet theories are being advanced about how it might not be a good time for cricket because, astoundingly, any untoward incidents might adversely impact the electoral prospects of the ruling government.

Now, if the government fears for the safety of the players, the team should not go, not now, and not after three months, because it is hard to imagine how the conditions, if they are unsafe now, would improve in three months. But if a postponement is being sought because the ruling party doesn't want take a chance with its own fortunes at the polls - it is even being suggested a poor performance by the Indian team in Pakistan would rob the nation of a feel-good factor - it amounts to an abuse of power. The Pakistan Cricket Board has been led to believe in recent weeks that the tour is nothing but a certainty. To pull the plug on them without there being a valid enough reason would be grossly unfair.

On the face of it, because we do not yet know if the government has been gathering intelligence quietly, the security assessment was left for too late, and there is a tokenism about the three-member delegation sent to assess the security situation in Pakistan. It contains two senior board officials with proven administrative capabilities, but you can't help wondering if they are best suited for an assessment of threat perception.

The Indian government is obliged make public its position on the tour quickly. If it is all right to tour in June, it is all right to tour now. It is impossible to separate sports from the national cause, but sports cannot be allowed to be hostage to the self-serving agenda of a political party.