If reports from some of the Israeli based newspapers have to be believed, Israel is all set to play a few one day internationals with India A. Jonty Rhodes would be giving his valuable inputs to the Israel cricketing youth as the mentor-coach and would be participating in the 3 ODIs. The Israel team would comprise of many Jewish cricketers across the world including India!

While the catch here is that this is an event… an event to celebrate the county’s 60th anniversary and that is why this could stir up the hornet’s nest in India, considering that they have the second largest Muslim population in the world. India’s political stand on the Israel-Palestine dispute is a tightrope with no real teeth. And this news could well cause a political storm, if the mainstream media latches on to it, where one would assume that cricket officials would be working overtime to douse out political volleys.

From a purely cricketing perspective, it is great to see the sport being introduced there all over again with International stars like Jonty Rhodes playing a big role in the development of the game in the country. However, if a storm does break out on this here in India, it would not be worth risking its internal peace to celebrate another nations anniversary in this fashion considering the sensitivities that may be affected.

However this is completely in speculation and India can very well surprise everyone. When one sees endless articles from journalists, ex-cricketers (read unknowns) everyday from snooty white cricketing nations on the evil BCCI and the stinking rich Indian players who bath everyday in hot rupyas, at the end of the day, it has been the same people who welcomed South Africa back into International cricket, the same people who stuck on during the world cup in Sri Lanka, where snooty white nations hurriedly packed their bags leaving behind their underwear in their hotels (this is true folks! ) when some bombs went off and the same people who had no qualms about playing a test cricket series in Zimbabwe where other white nations who talk so much about the sanctity of the game where cricket should be nothing more than cricket and then conveniently boycotts all tours in the name of moral political grounds.

I am no fan of the BCCI and in fact people hate them here more than one could imagine but then this post is about cricket in Israel… and I wish them luck!