Sutirtha Mukherjee tapped on Aleena Khan's right hand. Debutant Syndrela Das appeared slightly more cordial, offering a brief clasp of Kalsoom Khan's fingers and a gentle eshaku, the casual, slight bow of Japanese etiquette. Sreeja Akula even smiled as she saw Fatima Khan off.
Under normal circumstances, such gestures wouldn't matter, and they shouldn’t, because being courteous is part of the game. These did matter because they involved players from India and Pakistan.
Also read: Here's why Team India wouldn't hesitate to collect the Asia Cup trophy next year
India posted a comfortable 3-0 victory in Group F of the women’s table tennis team event at the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, and even as the tie lacked the usual intensity of an India-Pakistan encounter, the silent exchanges across the table spoke volumes.
Handshakes, or the lack of them, between sportspersons from India and Pakistan have garnered a lot of attention since the men’s Asia Cup cricket tournament in September 2025.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) adopted a no-handshake policy in protest against the Pahalgam terror attack in April. The men’s and women’s cricket teams of India have remained steadfast, snubbing players and administrators from across the border. Last week, Indian women’s team captain Harmanpreet Kaur refused to accept the Asia Cup trophy from Pakistan’s Mohsin Naqvi, the chair of the Asian Cricket Council.
The latest incident featuring the women’s table tennis team is not a one-off. The Indian men's hockey team exchanged high-fives with their opponents from Pakistan after clinching a thriller at the World Cup in August. In March this year, the Indian junior men's football team went a step further, exchanging pennants and shaking hands with the Pakistani players during the SAFF U-20 Championship in Male.
The young footballers' gesture seemed organic, though the actions of the hockey team and the table tennis players were in line with the government’s current position. In May, the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports gave the nod for athletes and teams to compete in multilateral international events featuring Pakistan, “guided by the practices of international sports bodies”.
India is set to host the Commonwealth Games in Ahmedabad in 2030 and is making a strategic push to host the Olympics in 2036. The government’s relaxed stance on sporting engagements with Pakistan at multilateral events is also intended to reflect India’s “emergence as a credible venue to host international sports events”.
This view was recently emphasised by the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs while answering a query on India’s participation in the South Asian Federation Games in Pakistan next year. The official said the country was “guided by what directions or what the international bodies, sports bodies, have to say on such matters as well as the interest of our sports people”.
India is distinguishing between restricting bilateral sporting ties with Pakistan and allowing athletes and sports bodies the leeway to fulfil their international commitments, or simply put, behave like athletes usually do.
Cricket continues to draw hard lines, driven by its financial muscle and political weight. The other Olympic sports, though, seem to be headed in a different direction, one that does not require stopping a player from giving a subtle nod or offering a gentle handshake just because the opponent is from Pakistan.