Play out the rivalry
While most people see cricket as a sport that has brought immense joy and excitement all over the world, for the people of India and Pakistan, cricket is much more than just a sport. For us, it’s a unifying force that transcends boundaries and culture. The cricketing rivalry between India and Pakistan is intense and passionate, with matches between the two nations being about national pride, honour and prestige.
But despite cricket’s immense popularity in India and Pakistan, political tensions between the two nations continue to overshadow the cricketing ties between them. This has resulted in a lack of bilateral cricketing series between the two nations, depriving cricket fans of the excitement and thrill of watching the greatest rivalry in cricket and one of the greatest in all sports. The South Asian nations have not faced off in a test match since 2007 and have not even played a limited-overs series since 2013. The handful of matches since then have all been during international competitions. Demand to see the teams play is so great that even the English Cricket Board has offered to serve as a neutral host for a test series. However, the Indian government continues to politicise the game and refuses to consider even neutral venues.
Indian captain and star batsman Rohit Sharma recently broke with his country’s sporting establishment by going against the government line and calling for the resumption of bilateral sporting ties, suggesting a test series at a neutral venue. Sharma underscored, “It’s just pure cricket that I’m looking at. I’m not interested in anything else. It’s a pure cricket game between bat and ball and it will be a great contest. So why not?”
Well, the main reason why is that the Modi government fears that people-to-people contacts encouraged by bilateral sports would undermine their efforts to blame Pakistan for its own policy failings and, even worse, lead to a thaw at societal level because, despite pronounced differences in some areas, there is no doubting the cultural ties and potential for friendship that we all still share.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 20th, 2024.
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