India could have defeated Pakistan on Saturday in a 2023 ICC World Cup match, but the country has sown signs of what would become a greater loss - its sporting spirit. The trend of rivalry between both the teams remains intact for years but what we saw on Saturday was certainly a new and awful trend of invoking the prevailing polarization across the country into the sports. 

It also raises a crucial question of whether our trait of treating sport as a sport has hit a new low and whether we are on a verge of losing our true fanfare. While the cricket fields had witnessed chaos and clashes when fans show their fury after the defeat of their favourite team, such rivalry has taken a new turn in India after a cluster of fans sparked controversy through their unrelatable and irrelevant chants. 

On Saturday -October 14, India and Pakistan had a summit clash in the 2023 ICC World Cup match at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. In the midst of a sharp attention from across the nation, some fans at the stadium had gone bigot by chanting 'Jai Shri Ram', without sensing that they are in a wrong place and setting a bad precedent for the country's sporting ethos. 

Pakistan had stumbled in India's bowling attack and Pakistan's campaign to score more was strongly curbed by the Indian bowlers. After getting bowled-out in a delivery from Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah, Pakistan's batter Mohammad Rizwan, whose wicket was a gamechanger, was walking towards the pavilion and when he crossed between the fans, he was given an unusual send-off as the fans stood close to the walkway chanted 'Jai Shri Ram' in an apparent attempt to tease Rizwan. 

Such kinds of 'Jai Shri Ram' chant is new for this new India that's already been suffering from religious polarization. Those chants had also defined the deep-rooted hate speech in the country under the reign of Hindutva-backed BJP regime and the religious chants in a sporting arena against a player from the politically-belligerent country has displayed that it's becoming difficult to uproot the roots of hate speech under the current regime. 

It's obvious that such chants are inappropriate tone to the Indian fabric of celebrating cricket that had shocked millions of cricket fans who had reminscied a special trait of the Indian crowds when it comes to relish cricket and true sportsmanship. History teaches how we were in the past and the current event of chanting 'Jai Shri Ram' would also etch a history of how our sporting spirit would be seen in the future. Are we failing to evolve or restropect ourselves when it comes to a cricket clash with our unfriendly neighbour? Are we polarizing the sport that we love dearly? 

In the past, there were heated exchanges between the Indian players and their Pakistan opponents in the field and such clashes weren't only between Indian and Pakistan players and those brief clashes won't go religious and in the end of the day, all that stand would be the fraternity between the players and fanfare. Now, the Jai Shri Ram chants had made us speak more than the subtle gameplay between Indian and Pakistan. It had also made us recall the events of rich sporting spirits displayed by the Indian fans. 

In 1997, when India took on Pakistan in Chennai, Pakistan batter Saeed Anwar scripted a new history - he scored 194 runs that remained the highest individual score in One-Day International (ODI) for many years. When he made history, no fans in Chennai targeted him based on his religion but they gave him a huge round of applause as the fans celebrated the true sportsmanship and performance that had ultimately erased Anwar's identity and religion. 

In that match, Pakistan defeated India but the fans and players shared a mutual love and respect on each other. Two years later, in 1999, India clashed Pakistan in a Test match, again in Chennai and again India lost the match. But, the fans gave a standing ovation to Pakistan players for their outstanding victory. Both the countries always had an adverse relationship but the die-hard cricket fans had never given up their sporting spirit and never carried a trait of teasing the players on religious grounds. 

Such a standing ovation was a vital reason why Pakistan players said that Chennai crowds are their favourite. The fans are using these two incidents to counter the current event of 'Jai Shri Ram' chant in Ahmedabad and responding to the chants, one of the Indian fans took to social media and wrote, "My country has changed." Several fans went on to issue an apology to Mohammad Rizwan for facing a harassment. 

Notably, this 'Jai Shri Ram' chant incident had happened a day ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's, the Ahmedabad stadium is named after him, announcement that India wants to host the 2036 Olympics. He said that India will move its bid to host the Olympics in 2036, but before that, we must run a scan on our eroding sporting spirit to ensure that no undeserved audience would decorate the Olympic arena. 

It's just a cricket match, but the real challenge is ending hunger crisis

As some fans had played a spoilsport in our sporting spirit, there's some real challenge that India should focus on, instead of spreading polarization and 'Jai Shri Ram' chants. India defeated Pakistan in cricket but the latter is doing better than the former in dealing the hunger crisis. As per the Global Hunger Index, India ranked 107 out of 121 countries in the index in 2022, with its child wasting rate at 19.3 per cent, being the highest in the world. 

While India stood at the 107th rank, Pakistan was doing better than India and it was ranked 99 in the Hunger Index. Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka were ranked 84, 81, and 64 respectively in 2022. With a score of 29.1, the level  of hunger in India has been labelled 'serious'. According to the Economic Times, India ranked 101 out of 116 countries in the Global Hunger Index in 2021 while in 2020 the country was placed at 94th position - when each year passes, India is struggling more with the hunger crisis.

As these crises and the ruling authoritarian regime are risking our country's values, let's not kill our sporting spirit and though it won't be instrumental in the country's economical growth, it would define how we are unbiasedly promoting and celebrating young talents and sporting ecosystem. 

PM Modi desperately wants India to host the 2036 Olympics.

But if this is what BJP has reduced our audiences to - where they heckle a Pakistani player with chants of Jai Shri Ram - massive doubts remain over whether we’re qualified & sporting enough to host ANY international… pic.twitter.com/8m4BgdAOFn

— Saket Gokhale (@SaketGokhale) October 15, 2023