Sports to boost diplomacy
Elite badminton, cricket player have potential role in improving China-India ties
While Pusarla Sindhu’s triumph in the final of the badminton China Open is a testament to her talent and relentless hard work, credit should also go to her coach Pullela Gopichand.
Gopichand, who single-handedly set up a world-class academy in the absence of any government support in India, deserves to be applauded. At his badminton academy, he has moulded players like Sindhu and Srikanth Kidambi, who won the China Open title in 2014.
In contrast to badminton – a popular sport in China – cricket, the most popular sport in India, is quite a complex game. It has three formats: tests, one day internationals (ODIs) and the latest version Twenty-20.
The major cricket-playing nations in the world are: England, Australia, New Zealand, West Indies, South Africa, Zimbabwe, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The cricket world governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), has granted these nations full-fledged “test match” playing status.
Cricket is not a major sport in most countries and regions, but due to the large number of expats from South Asia and Britain around the world, the game has a good base even in the US, Canada, Europe and Africa.
Cricket potential in China
The Chinese Cricket Association (CCA) became an affiliate member of the ICC in 2005. The CCA outlined its goals as: having 20,000 players and 2,000 coaches in 2015, qualifying for the World Cup in 2019 and gaining Test status in 2020.
Test matches and ODIs are unlikely to gain popularity in China due to the large amount of time involved in these versions of the game. But Twenty-20, or simply T20, the shortest format of cricket, is deemed to have the potential to develop in China. T20 was first introduced by the England and Wales cricket board in 2003 for inter-county competitions in England and Wales, and has become very popular globally.
It seems in the shortened version of a team sport like cricket, the chances of a small national team upsetting an established sporting power are much higher.
In the 2009 T20 World Cup, the Netherlands shocked England by beating them on their home ground. Earlier this year, Afghani- stan defeated the eventual winners West Indies in the group game during the T20 World Cup in India. Neither the Netherlands nor Afghanistan are test-playing nations, whereas both England and the West Indies are established cricketing powers.
Sports exchange programs
The renowned ping-pong diplomacy, which involved players from China and the US visiting each other to play table tennis, is largely responsible for the normalization of relations between the two countries.
With the high professionalism of China in badminton and India in cricket, the two sides can hold some exchange programs over the development of the sports in respective countries, which would greatly improve relations between China and India.
India has a vast pool of talented cricket players. Retired and current players from India could visit Chinese cities to conduct coaching camps. This would take the game of cricket to the grassroots of Chinese society, thereby resulting in the establishment of T20 leagues across China.
China could develop a large pool of talented cricket players within a short time span if the leagues can compete against each other, thereby a strong Chinese T20 team will be soon.
India has also emerged as a strong powerhouse of badminton in the last few years. The Chinese Badminton Association can make the sport more accessible and popular across India by sending badminton players to promote the game in India and to play against Indian players.
Badminton-cricket diplomacy would result in greater cooperation and mutual trust between China and India. This would also have a positive effect on political and business ties between the two countries.