Cricket as a wargame

For a regular columnist, there usually is a good choice of subjects every week. One can be very partial at times and pander to a personal whim. But there are occasions when a subject imposes itself and saves the columnist from any serious deliberation. The readers would not pay attention to anything else.

Now, it so happens that this column is being published on Sunday, February 23, 2025. Literally, hundreds of millions of people in India and Pakistan – and more millions across the world – are holding their breath for a spectacle that will begin in Dubai in the afternoon.

This will simply be a cricket match between India and Pakistan in the Champions Trophy – and it is not the final. But every time Pakistan and India play cricket against each other, the hype that is created is extraordinary. Normal routines of life will be severely disturbed in the two countries until late in the evening when the 50-over match is decided.

And even after the match has ended, the postmortem will continue to agitate the minds of the devotees of both teams, though the victors and the losers will be in their separate states of mind. What transpires in the playing field will touch the emotions of countless individuals and may momentarily interfere with their mood and behaviour.

When countries play one another in any game, it becomes natural for the citizens of a country to emotionally support their side. Such encounters arouse patriotic feelings. Victories in major, international tournaments can raise the morale of the people and this may even have some political consequences. Likewise, an abysmal defeat may also have an impact on the collective state of mind.

The point here is that competitive sports between nations can become a matter of national importance. But a cricket match between India and Pakistan belongs in an entirely different category. It goes beyond the notion of two teams playing against each other. The playground becomes a battlefield. As if it is a continuation of war through other means.

The reason why the India-Pakistan cricket rivalry is considered one of the most intense in sports is that it reflects a complex history and issues of culture and politics involving both countries. In that sense, it is not possible to ignore the difficult and incomprehensible relations between India and Pakistan that have left their mark on all four generations that have lived since the Partition of 1947.

One measure of the animosity that has existed between the two countries is that today’s march is being played in Dubai. Technically, this match should have been played in Pakistan. This is so because it is after 29 years that Pakistan is hosting an ICC event again. The last time Pakistan hosted an ICC tournament was in 1996.

The present tournament was inaugurated in a grand ceremony in Karachi on Wednesday and the first game was played between New Zealand and Pakistan. We lost that match, and it confirmed the observation that Pakistan is very unpredictable in cricket.

But I am not in a position to tell the story of Pakistan’s cricket because I am not an enthusiast of the game. I do not understand its technicalities. However, I enjoy the live transmission of a keenly contested match and will certainly be following the match today. I am making this confession because I am unable to recall interesting facts that relate to the history of matches between India and Pakistan. I have noticed that in cricket, records are very important and entire columns in the newspapers are filled with statistics on the performance of individual players.

For that matter, I was not tempted to watch the Netflix documentary series titled ‘The Greatest Rivalry: India vs Pakistan’. It has stayed among the top ten shows on the popular streaming platform. But I want to underline the fact that today’s match is judged to be so important by Netflix. The three-episode documentary on the dramatic rivalry in cricket between India and Pakistan “explores their intricate past and uncertain presence on the pitch”.

Let me return to the absurdity of today’s match being played in Dubai. This, to use a relevant expression, “is not cricket”. Actually, the rulers in both countries have not been capable of playing their game, leaving the world in a state of bewilderment by the conflicts that have existed between the two neighbours, at the enormous cost of not making the progress that would otherwise be possible.

Anyhow, I should not be diverted by thoughts that are prompted by a reference to any aspect of relations between India and Pakistan. I am fond of saying that South Asia is a jinxed region. So many of us are not been able to understand why the governments in the two countries are not willing to allow people-to-people contact, given the historical and cultural links that have not been erased.

Ideally, playing games with your adversaries could be a part of confidence-building measures that are necessary to set the stage for serious negotiations for a meaningful resolution of conflicts. But India and Pakistan seem to be moving in the opposite direction. That is how India is not willing to come to Pakistan to play cricket. Once again, they are playing in a neutral location.

Because Dubai hosts expatriates of both countries in large numbers, supporters of the two teams will be seated in the same stadium and there is bound to be another kind of match between the supporters of either side. It will definitely be a very lively show, and this passion will be duplicated across all the cities, towns and villages of both countries.

In one sense, this will be a kind of people-to-people contact and hopefully, it will not end on a sour note when, inevitably, one side scores a victory. After tonight, there will be a lot more cricket to be played, and there is a likelihood of India playing Pakistan again. But what the two countries will continue to play will not be cricket.

The writer is a senior journalist. He can be reached at: ghazi_salahuddin@hotmail.com