2nd
Excerpt from a speech given by SouLBW at Villa La Pietra, Florence, Italy
“What I most surely know in the long run about morality and the obligations of men, I owe to sport.” Albert Camus.
“I tend to think that cricket is the greatest thing that God ever created on earth.” Harold Pinter.
Tonight in Firenze
For the citizens of the terror-troubled land of Pakistan, tonight is a time to laugh and a time to heal. For on the 21st of June 2009, their cricket team lifted the World T20 Championship, global cricket’s second biggest prize, and like a Punjabi marriage, the celebrations will continue all through this week. And Pakistan’s team won by playing magical cricket against the odds, cricket inspired and stained with their soul: emotional, unpredictable, and when on a roll, unstoppable.
And so even as I speak, happiness continues to erupt from Faisalabd to Firenze, Rawalpindi to Rome, Lahore to Lucca, and indeed, in all places that house a Pakistani. On the night of the 21st, CNN beamed images in spontaneous acts of dancing and singing from Islamabad, proud Pakistanis celebrating a rare moment of inclusive happiness. For a land where incomprehensible death is an everyday occurrence, this week is a week from heaven above. On the night of 21st of June, Pakistan’s present beseeched Allah for a moment of God, and He responded in kind. Indeed, as one celebrating supporter said to a reporter, “This is the real face of Pakistan. We want the world to know this. And just like we won in cricket, so too, will we win against the terrorists.”
That the captain dedicated the win to Robert Woolmer, their English coach who died of a stress-related illness during the World Cup in 2007, was a moment of human love and respect, the twin pillars of a nation that continues to be graceful under pressure. Pakistan’s victory is again proof that sport has the power to heal the people of a nation, and the power to bring together the peoples of a divided subcontinent.
But even as I speak, more than two million people have been displaced these past two months as the Pakistani Army continues its offensive against the Pakistani Taliban. And yesterday, American Drones killed more than fifty people attending a funeral in South Waziristan, the main stronghold of Baitullah Meshud, the Taliban’s leader in Pakistan. The BBC reports that five militants were killed but that innocents too lost their lives. It was but another harrowing moment in a series of such moments from a war that seems to have no end in sight.
Therefore, for a nation “traumatized like never before by the indiscriminate slaughter of innocent people by the Taliban,” Pakistan’s cricket win could not have come at a more appropriate time. And for a cricketing outfit deprived of top-level international cricket for more than 15 months, for reeling under the most terrible incident of the game’s history (the attack on the Sri Lankans on the 3rd of March), Pakistan defied the laws of equilibrium to become champions of the world. It was truly a miracle, but such is the beauty of sport, and I daresay, of life itself.
My friends in the writing program have looked on in bemusement at my obsession with this game so alien to them, and I tell them now, that this is why I watch cricket. For a moment like this, where I can exist outside of myself, and be one with a land of millions tonight. To feel the joy of the common Pakistani cricket fan who lives on no more than five dollars a day, who lives in constant fear of being caught in terror’s crossfire, yet one who lives with a smile on his face and with love of his family by his side. Oh yes, and one who is now a champion of the world.
And so Tonight in Firenze, I stand and address you not as a Hindu and an Indian, but as a proud and ecstatic Pakistani cricket fan. I stand here wondrous, with joy in my soul, and with a heart that beats proud and strong. Tonight, I hear the children of Pakistan laugh and sing, and their sounds grow louder and still louder, drowning the din of violence and dissent, giving shape to an eternal and beautiful nation.
May we always be as happy as that cricket fan in Pakistan tonight, and may the Almighty Allah bless us all.
