Close your eyes and ask yourself what’s the one thing you would want to change in 2025. Almost everyone would have the same answer – we need to bring peace to our world. Be it the conflict in the Middle East and the killing of innocents in the region, or the multiple terror attacks across the world, we need a better and more peaceful world going into 2026. Add to it the ongoing clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the concern turns into alarm. Growing intolerance is a disease and the faster we rid ourselves of it, the better for everyone.
And the one thing that does help bring peace is sport. It unites and brings people together. Imagine the relations between India and China a few years ago. They were anything but pleasant. The tension was palpable, and yet when the Asian Games and the Asian Para Games were held in China, all that we saw was amicable people-to-people contact. No animosity, but a sense of harmony. When Randhir Singh, an Indian serving as President of the Olympic Council of Asia, accepted the athletes’ salute on Chinese soil during the opening ceremony, a statement was made.
This isn’t the first time or the first occasion that sport has been used to bring peace to our world. The Qatar World Cup at the end of 2022 was yet another occasion when the world got together for the first time since Covid. The human-rights issues notwithstanding, Doha was a global melting pot and everyone celebrated the brilliance of Leo Messi and Argentina. That’s what it is all about – a celebration of human achievement and extraordinary feats of excellence. In doing so, we foster the kind of imaginary community that Benedict Anderson had envisaged.
Imagine young men and women going out to play. Imagine they don’t return and get killed by bombs. That’s our world now.
Killing of innocent Afghan cricketers should be enough to ban Pakistan from international sport.@BoriaMajumdar #AfghanistanAndPakistan #Afghanistan… pic.twitter.com/klGxiJKCli
— RevSportz Global (@RevSportzGlobal) October 18, 2025
And that’s what brings me to the killing of innocent Afghan cricketers by the roguish Pakistan regime. Going strictly by the official statement released by the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB), these young cricketers had left home to play a friendly game. On their return, they were bombed and killed. Half a dozen cricketers lost their lives and countless others were injured. In grief, Afghanistan have now withdrawn from the tri-series in Pakistan. Rashid Khan has highlighted the issue and expressed deep anguish.
For decades, sport has served as a forum to highlight the issues of the dispossessed and the marginalised, using the glare of public spotlight to focus world attention on their causes. While Seoul 1988 highlighted the Korea crisis, Barcelona brought to light ethnic differences within Spanish society. Atlanta drew global attention to the race issue in the US and Sydney highlighted the Aboriginal crisis Down Under.
When Cathy Freeman lit the flame at the Sydney Games in 2000, much more than a sporting ritual was performed. It had immense symbolism for the tensions at the heart of modern Australian society. The killing of innocent Afghan cricketers is enough to expose Pakistan and isolate them. Remove them from international sport, for they don’t deserve to be part of the mainstream. Unless there is course correction, Pakistan has no place in sport, which makes room for peaceful dialogue and lets the human spirit triumph against all odds.
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