India-Pakistan cricket match is always noisy and played at good -natured revelry. At Edgbaston the chants on either side were a bit louder, a bit more strident and just that bit edgier. The security cordons, already overwhelmed, simply gave way when the India team bus arrived.
From out of nowhere appeared, hundreds of placard-waving, anti-India-chanting, `K'word wielding Pakistani activists rushed in, completely swamping the barricades. It was clearly pre-planned and politically motivated, intended to raise the Kashmir issue, and just the kind of attention this game could have done without.
They were smaller in number compared to the Indian fans but managed to make the necessary impact. As Virat Kohli and company emerged from the team bus, they were greeted with strident anti-India slogans. Chants of “Kashmir azaad hai” and “Go back India” merged with “Kohli, Kohli” and “Dhoni, Dhoni” before rising above the din.
Some blue-wearing fans were heckled in the melee. Some made a hasty exit. Some joked about knife-wielding lunatics, but it wasn't funny. “We are sitting ducks here aren't we,” said a local of Pakistani origin. Many in that crowd would have lost all faith in security arrangements at public events. In an international tournament of this scale, this kind of lack of security around the team bus is unthinkable in the subcontinent.
The incident was another reminder of how easy it is to breach protocol in sporting contests of this size. In slack security anything could happen. Though nothing untoward had happened in Edgbaston. But the anti-India chanters were able to achieve their purpose.
