Asia Cup: Cricket’s biggest rivalry returns

India skipper Rohit Sharma and Pakistan captain Babar Azam prior to their Asia Cup T20I match at Dubai last year. Pic/AFP

The bitter rivalry between India and Pakistan has cast a long, dark shadow on relations between the South Asian neighbours, be it political, economic, diplomatic or sporting. The biggest repercussion has been on the ties between the two cricketing powers, so much so that there has been no bilateral series for a decade.

Highly passionate fans

This isolation, on the one hand, has deprived millions of cricket fans worldwide to savour a great sporting rivalry, which is even greater than what is seen in the Ashes. On the other, it arouses great passion among fans on either side of the border whenever an ICC or an ACC tournament is scheduled. This time it's no different, with both teams set to play one another at least twice at the ongoing Asia Cup in Sri Lanka and Pakistan. And if luck favours the two, we could see a much-anticipated Indo-Pak final in Colombo on September 17. And this is just the precursor, as India and Pakistan are set to play a big-ticket ICC Cricket World Cup match in Ahmedabad on October 14. However, as it's a round-robin format among 10 teams, their only other potential match-up could be in the semi-final (at Kolkata on November 16) or the final (in Ahmedabad on November 19).

In the past, cricket was a catalyst for improving relations between India and Pakistan since the two countries started playing cricket with each other in 1952. But over the years, instead of relations thawing down after 75 years of hostilities, which has led to three full-scale wars and the Kargil skirmish, the relations have deteriorated so much that the ICC or ACC tournaments are the only platform where the rivals can enthral their passionate fans on either side of the border.

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How relations have swung from one end of the pendulum to the other can be gauged from the fact that Indian fans would travel from Amritsar to Lahore every day when India toured Pakistan for a Test series for the first time in 1954-55. The Indian fans crossed the Wagah border, registered at the post, went to the Gaddafi Stadium, saw the match and returned home by night only to travel to Lahore again the following day. In the present situation, one cannot imagine that scenario.

Cricket improved relations

Yet, cricket in the past has had a role in thawing, if not improving, relations between the two nations. The most outstanding incident of friendship between the players happened in the midst of the 1971 war when simultaneously three players each from India and Pakistan were in the Garry Sobers-led Rest of the World team that toured Australia from November to February 1971-72. The three Indian players - Bishan Bedi, Farokh Engineer, and a young Sunil Gavaskar - played, joked, and dined with Pakistanis Intikhab Alam, Zaheer Abbas and Asif Masood without a care for the tension back home. Photos from Australia of the six mingling after the bitter 1971 Bangladesh war helped ease tensions between the two countries.

Pakistan's tour of India in 1999

In 1999, immediately following Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's historic visit to Pakistan, the Pakistani team toured India for a series of Test matches and One Day Internationals. The Kargil War later in the year re-ignited tensions between the countries and cricket was suspended again. Vajpayee's peace initiative of 2003 led to India touring Pakistan after a gap of almost 15 years. Subsequent exchange tours were held in 2005 and 2006 before the 2008 Mumbai terror attack led to the cancellation of India's tour in 2009. India thereafter have refused to play a bilateral series against Pakistan as relations have been acrimonious. The last time Pakistan played in India was in December 2012 (to January 2013) where a two-game T20I series was shared 1-1 while the neighbours won the three-match ODI series 2-1. So, over 10 years later, Pakistan will come across to play a cricket game in India this October. It's difficult to predict if it will thaw the relations between the two countries, but finally, there is a breakthrough, be it on an ICC platform. And cricket fans have their fingers crossed!