A lie becomes the gospel
In the Guardian , Dileep Premachandran recalls his previous visits to Pakistan, and believes the country has wrongly been stereotyped and isolated.
ESPNcricinfo staff
25-Feb-2013
In the Guardian, Dileep Premachandran recalls his previous visits to Pakistan, and believes the country has wrongly been stereotyped and isolated.
If you tell a lie enough times, people will believe it to be the gospel. The decision not to play in Pakistan wasn't really about security. Not one Indian player spoke of being under siege during the recent Asia Cup, and these are citizens of a country that has fought four wars with Pakistan and still squabbles over disputed territory in Kashmir. To imagine that a Ricky Ponting or a Hamish Marshall would be a more attractive target than Sachin Tendulkar for some clueless Jihadi is to reduce yourself to the intellectual level of those who envision 72 Ana Ivanovic clones waiting for them in heaven should they strap some RDX to their belts and blow themselves up with a timer.
Mathew Varghese is sub-editor (stats) at Cricinfo