Exclusive | India wrong for refusing handshake with Pakistan, Gambhir must have felt pressure: Manoj Tiwary

In the aftermath of handshake gate, PCB has filed a complaint against Team India and asked for the removal of the match referee for the India vs Pakistan match.

Was Team India’s decision to refuse the customary handshake with the Pakistan team right? For Manoj Tiwary, it isn’t. For the former Indian cricketer, what the Men in Blue did was nothing was wrong. Perhaps one could even say, performative.

Manoj had already made his stance clear before the Asia Cup match on September 14. “I am boycotting the India vs Pakistan match as well as the Asia Cup because I cannot watch this. It needs to be understood that this is just a sport; this is not life. We are comparing human lives to sports; this should never be done,” he’d said.

Was handshake gate performative?

He wasn’t in favour of the match going ahead, like many others. But it did. For him, that was wrong to begin with. But why does Manoj think the decision not to shake hands with Pakistan was incorrect?

In an exclusive conversation with InsideSport, the former cricketer from Bengal explained that just five days ago, India captain Suryakumar Yadav had shaken hands with Pakistan captain Salman Ali Agha and Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Mohsin Naqvi.

If the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and Team India had no issues then, why now? Of course, everyone remembers the amount of backlash Suryakumar got. And to save themselves from further criticism, the decision to shake hands was dropped. So, that means dedicating the victory to the Pahalgam victims or the Indian armed forces was just a move to avoid backlash.

“I thought it was not the right thing to do. Once you’ve decided to play the game against Pakistan, I was watching one of the clips from the press conference where there was a handshake between the captains. Over there, Surya did shake hands with Salman Agha. So, once you’ve already done it at the press conference, what is the message you want to send? That, ‘I don’t want to shake hands after winning and want to dedicate this win to the martyrs and the grieving families,'” Manoj told InsideSport.

Gambhir saving himself by boycotting Pakistan?

The domestic great further explained how the move was perhaps taken by India’s head coach, Gautam Gambhir. For a while now, he has stated that India vs Pakistan matches shouldn’t happen. He did before taking over as head coach in July last year and even in May this year.

Manoj highlights how Gambhir was fine criticising others when he wasn’t in power, but when his turn came, he didn’t boycott the game. Manoj had previously questioned why Gambhir didn’t resign when it was decided that India and Pakistan would play in the Asia Cup.

He feels Gambhir was saving his face by telling the Indian players to refuse handshakes with the Pakistan team. Otherwise, it would have gone completely against his own statement when he wasn’t India’s head coach.

“I think the head coach must have felt the pressure about himself being hypocritical about the fact that, when he was not in charge of the side, he gave a lot of statements that he cannot defend. He could have opted out himself, but he didn’t do that. I think he was triggered to show some support to the victims by not shaking hands with the Pakistan team,” Manoj added.