Pakistan jersey-wearing Kashmiri cricketers detained; NIA team to visit Valley for further probe

Members of a cricket team in Kashmir made headlines in the last few days for wearing Pakistan jerseys, as well as singing the national anthem of the neighbouring country, with which India has not had the best of relations.

If latest reports are to be believed, members of the Baba Darya Ud Din team were detained on Wednesday by local police in Ganderbal in central Kashmir, with a National Investigation Agency (NIA) team slated to visit the Valley later to further probe into the incident.

Central Kashmir deputy inspector general of police, Ghulam Hassan Bhat, confirmed the development in a report in the  Hindustan Times.  

“The boys are in the police station,” Bhat was quoted as saying in the report.

Security in the meantime has been beefed up around the police station after local residents gathered around it demanding the immediate release of the 11 players in question.

The clip showing the players wearing the green jerseys were first uploaded by the Kashmir Media Service. They also carried a report for the same, which identified the venue of the match as the Wayil playfield in Ganderbal on 2 April.

The video caused a furore in India, especially in the backdrop of the recent cross-border tensions between the two neighbours. Terror attacks such as that at Pathankot in January 2016, as well as the Uri attacks later that year have worsened relations in recent times.

The tensions have spilled over to the cricket field as well, with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) refusing to entertain a bilateral series with Pakistan despite signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in 2014 that included six bilateral series, two of which have already been scrapped.

The PCB is reported to be filing a case before the International Cricket Council (ICC) against the BCCI for losing out on revenue due to the cancelled series, and said it will not hesitate to approach the courts in case the ICC fails to deliver them justice.