Mumbai: In the gentleman’s game, a simple handshake often seals sportsmanship, but history brims with moments when fury froze those courtesies.
Flashback to 1996: Amid a powder-keg series Down Under, Sri Lanka’s skipper Arjuna Ranatunga, battling illness, sought a runner – only for umpires to nix it. Aussies howled foul, branding him slower than the fleet-footed Sanath Jayasuriya, igniting a firestorm.
Tensions boiled over as wicketkeeper Ian Healy hurled a cruel barb, dubbing Ranatunga “fatso”, fuelling outrage. Umpires’ relentless no-ball calls on wizard spinner Muttiah Muralitharan had already stoked tensions and eroded trust. When Ranatunga fell, Shane Warne’s venomous send-off poured oil on the flames. In a defiant riposte, the Lankan captain ordered his squad to shun the post-match clasp with the Australians — a stark symbol of fractured ties that scarred bilateral cricket for years.
Nearly three decades on, echoes reverberate. In the just-concluded Asia Cup 2025, arch-rivals India and Pakistan traded barbs sans the ritual grip. From the opener on September 14 to the final, Indian stars like Suryakumar Yadav bypassed handshakes, even at tosses with Pak skipper. Pakistan’s Salman Agha shrugged it off bluntly, quipping on worse Indo-Pak rifts, while gripes over trophy snubs added salt.
As gates slammed on waiting Pakistanis, social media erupted, questioning if geopolitics now trumps turf wars.
These icy interludes serve as a reminder that cricket’s controversies are not solely about runs and wickets, but rather, they are poignant tales of pride, prejudice, and unspoken injustices.