Invite Iraq to Nehru Cup

It was a Kurd who punted the ball for a Sunni to nod it into the Saudi goal to give trouble-torn Iraq an extraordinary Asia Cup victory last weekend, and no Shia could help applauding the point.
What better example of "united football" which FIFA president Sepp Blatter spoke of later, could one ask for? For once, all differences, personal or sectarian, were forgotten.Football, needless to say, is a team game, success in which cannot come without unified teamwork and understanding. Individual skills alone, however good they may be, alone will not do.
Football, we now know, has a certain transcendental appeal which can bind people together, even if so fleetingly. It can bring moments of happiness in the midst of suicide bombings and other hostile acts that terrorists resort to make whatever point they are out to make.
The Iraqi football team's captain Younis Mahmoud, is aware of this transitory nature of the joy his men have given their fellow-countrymen and even fears for his safety. Who knows when the next suicide bomber will blow himself and others up? In fact, even before these lines were written the mayhem resumed, bombers killing 70 people in Baghdad.
If the gesture of the United Arab Emirates ruler to send his own private jet to fly the Iraqis over to Dubai and award them $5.5 million is any indication, the Asia Cup victory is a matter of pride for the entire Arab race. Earlier, the Iraqi government also had announced a reward of $10,000 to each player of the Cup-winning team.
It seems only the other day, so to speak, that Saddam Hussain's statue was toppled and the man himself captured from his underground hiding place. "We got him," his American captors triumphantly announced to the world. Whatever the charges against the dictator, Iraq should be thanking itself that he left behind many good footballers who, years after he was hanged famously regrouped and developed into a cup-winning force under a Brazilian coach.
Iraq is not the only example of sportsmen somehow managing their way to self-expression inspite of turbulence in their own country. You had Croats doing well in the 1998 World Cup — reaching the semifinal, before being knocked out by eventual champions France — not to mention their proud tennis players.
In our own north-east region, Manipur has managed to throw up sportspersons despite the violent incidents we hear about from time to time. Shortly after MC Marykom won the world 46kg category women's boxing crown for the third successive time in New Delhi last November, we were shocked by the news that her father-in-law was killed. "It is not uncommon in these parts," was the cool reaction of the champion who is expecting a baby in September.
Nothing has raised Iraq in the eyes of the world the way its football team has done. What about sending an Indian jet over to Iraq to get its team over to New Delhi's Ambedkar Stadium where the ONGC Cup international tournament starts on August 17, even asking Mr Blatter to use his good offices for the purpose if it comes to that? It could be our way to salute a fantastic success.