Battlefield or Big Match?

Tuesday, 5 March 2013 00:57 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

THE scenes at the Big Match between Ananda-Nalanda that resulted in 20 people being hospitalised and four others arrested places a massive question mark over events that were supposed to serve the purposes of fun.

Police fired tear gas to quell the crowds and the shocking scenes landed on the front page of newspapers and websites, with extensive reporting on the number of injuries. However, the exact reason for the mass altercation has not been made public. Stories floating around insist that the fight on Sunday was the spill-over of an earlier scuffle between the two schools, but the results are shocking enough to warrant a strong response. The question is, who should it come from?

Despite the furore caused by the incident, Big Match ‘fever’ continues to spread, with students enthusiastically partaking in the usual activities such as gate crashing prominent girls’ schools, holding vehicle parades and collecting cap contributions.

Most are likely to view these practices with good humour, but it cannot be denied that the incidents of Sunday have cast a pall over Big Match week and dug up memories of previous clashes where students have been grievously injured or worse. Given the natural heightened spirits attending inter-school cricket matches, enforcing safety regulations while allowing students to have fun is a knotty problem that requires the involvement of all stakeholders.

After the clashes on Sunday, special mufti-clad Policemen have been deployed in the city and elsewhere to nab errant schoolboys and others who flout road and traffic rules during the ongoing ‘Big Match’ season. Senior Police officers have assured media that stern action will be taken against such persons irrespective of the schools they are attached to. They have emphasised that Police will not permit schoolboys to ride on the footboards of moving vehicles or collect monies from traders and the public. Parents and school authorities have been requested to advice students so that offences could be prevented.

The Police cannot be in all places all the time. This means that clashes can take place and students can be caught at the wrong place at the wrong time. Moreover, getting mixed up in these clashes and getting arrested could have serious repercussions for their future prospects. Understandably no parent wants to be called by the Police and notified that their child is in custody or in hospital with injuries. That means the place to start addressing this issue could be at home.

Big Matches were formulated with the idea of fostering healthy competition between schools – not to provide battlefields. Yet, as decades lapsed, there were sporadic incidents, which while shocking were allowed to be forgotten with the lapse of time. Younger students need to be reminded the true cost of violence and taught that the results of emotional outburst can be serious and permanent.

Other schools also need to join in and promote peaceful interaction so that students can have their fun and make memories without shades of blood and whiffs of teargas. Suffocating fun is not the intention, but it cannot be used as an excuse to flout rules and engage in violence.