• Source:JND
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Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Thursday emphasised the importance of sportsmanship, addressing the controversy surrounding Indian players refusing to shake hands with Pakistani counterparts during the ongoing Asia Cup tournament being played in United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Tharoor stressed that the spirit of the game should be kept separate from politics and military conflicts.

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"I personally feel that once the decision had been made to play, if we feel so strongly about Pakistan, we should not have played... But if we are going to play them, we should play in the spirit of a game, and we should have shaken their hands... We have done this before in 1999, when the Kargil War was going on. On the very day the soldiers were dying for our country, we were playing the World Cup in England against Pakistan. We were shaking their hands even then because the spirit of the game is a different spirit from what goes on between countries, between Armies and so on. That is my view," Shashi Tharoor told ANI.

"If the Pakistani team, having been insulted the first time, decided to insult us back the second time, it shows that the spirit of the game is lacking on both sides," he added.

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On Thursday, The BCCI filed an official complaint with the ICC against Pakistan cricketers Haris Rauf and Sahibzada Farhan in view of the provocative actions they displayed during the Super 4 clash last week.

As per a Dainik Jagran report, the BCCI asked for a strict action from on-field referee Andy Pycroft against Farhan and Rauf's "provocative and indecent behaviour" in the Asia Cup match held in Dubai last week.

India humiliated Pakistan in the two matches they played against each other, as they advanced to the finals of the Asia Cup. There is a possibility that they might face them again in Sunday's final.