Sport Tourism as a Means of Reconciliation? The Case of India—Pakistan Cricket

Abstract

Sport provides an opportunity for international contact both at the level of competitors and, in much larger numbers, of spectators. Where there has been a redrawing of political boundaries, often through war or bloody partition, the peoples involved may find sports matches a medium for reconciliation and redefinition of personal allegiances. Having reviewed the difficulties faced by the International Olympic Committee over the years and the strange anomalies that have arisen with divided countries, the article offers a systematic review of cross-border sport tourism in the case of cricket matches between India and Pakistan. The Test series of early 1955 is used to illustrate the reactions and reflections of spectators in a situation where there was the first mass cross-border contact following a period of severe confrontation which fell just short of war. The more recent Dil Jeet Lo (Win Hearts) Tour of 2004 is then reviewed, including the political preparations which enabled it to take place and the problematic nature of ‘stage-managing’ this first sustained encounter for fourteen years. The article then considers whether such sporting contact between spectators can offer the potential to promote a longer-term peace and its concomitant reconciliation process. With reference to frameworks of reconciliation theories, it concludes that while such contact may be a catalyst for inter-personal reconciliation, the overall level of reconciliation will be dependent on broader issues such as the nations' political will to achieve reconciliation.