Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Thursday said he did not agree with the Indian cricket team's decision to refuse a customary hand shake with the Pakistan team during the two matches that both sides have played against each other during the ongoing T20 Asia Cup tournament.
"If we feel so strongly about Pakistan, we should not have played," the Lok Sabha MP from Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram said.
"But, if we are going to play them, we should play in the spirit of a game, and we should have shaken their hands," he added.
Tharoor then cited the India-Pakistan clash during the 1999 World Cup when both sides shook hands on the field even during the Kargil War.
"On the very day the soldiers were dying for our country, we were playing the World Cup in England against Pakistan. We were shaking their hands even then because the spirit of the game is a different spirit from what goes on between countries, between Armies and so on. That is my view," Tharoor said.
The Congress leader further said that the reactions from both sides have displayed a lack of the spirit of the game. "If the Pakistani team, having been insulted the first time, decided to insult us back the second time, it shows that the spirit of the game is lacking on both sides," he said.
The first Group A match between India and Pakistan took place on September 14 when Captain Suryakumar Yadav sealed the contest with a six before opting to storm off the pitch along with teammate Shivam Dube, choosing not to engage in the customary post-match handshakes with the opposition at the Dubai International Stadium.
At the post-match presentation ceremony, the Indian skipper dedicated the team's victory to the Indian armed forces while expressing solidarity with the victims of the Pahalgam terror attack. The gesture came after intense backlash over BCCI's decision to play with Pakistan in view of its terse stand on terror emanating from its soil.
India defeated Pakistan once again on September 21 in Dubai in the Super 4 stage of the tournament. While India have sailed through into the Asia Cup final, it may face Pakistan yet again for the tile clash if the latter manages to defeat Bangladesh in the match scheduled to be played on Thursday.
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