Ever since British lawyer Cyril Radcliffe forayed into cartography and drew a line that split India and Pakistan in 1947, the air has always been thick with tumult and various complexities. Battles were fought, blood was shed and it is no surprise that cricket between the two nations is often described as war minus the shooting.
A home that got divided and threw up estranged cousins is bound to leave perennial scars and it is a baggage that the Indian and Pakistani cricket squads contend with all the time. Even if the players share a rapport and dig into Punjabi pop, history lends a suffocating embrace and the people on either side of the Wagah border want their respective team to always win.
Not just another game
Nationalism often feeds the official broadcaster’s jingoistic build-up to any India-Pakistan contest and it is not just another game, ever. “The disagreements between Hindus and Muslims before 1947, and between India and Pakistan since, have thrown a long shadow across the playing fields of the world,” wrote Ramachandra Guha in his ‘A Corner of a Foreign Field’.
Still it is a sporting rivalry that can hold itself well against other storied face-offs like the Ashes, for instance. The latest instalment was dished out during the ICC T20 World Cup fixture in New York last Sunday. And like it largely happens in ICC events, India prevailed again, with the margin being a narrow six runs in a low-scoring match.
The diaspora, be it Indian or Pakistani, had enough to root for and there was no mistaking what cricket has missed over the past years. An India-Pakistan joust is now pinned entirely on ICC tournaments while bilateral skirmishes have been avoided as governments prefer political brownie points over sport’s honest sweat and egalitarian joy.
However, there was a time when cricket diplomacy was the preferred bridge and there were enough nuggets to embellish this intense rivalry. Kapil Dev pinging Sadiq Mohammad’s helmet during his 1978 Test debut in Pakistan; or Sachin Tendulkar, all of 16, countering Imran Khan, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis during his maiden 1989 tour and also wading into wily leg-spinner Abdul Qadir in an exhibition game at Peshawar is the stuff of legend.
The Siamese-twins analogy for the two nations was always in vogue as there are ties that bind. Kapil’s roots stretch all the way to Sialkot in Pakistan while iconic Indian wicketkeeper Syed Kirmani has relatives in Karachi. Pakistan’s great batter Zaheer Abbas, who relished Indian attacks, is one of Kanpur’s famous sons-in-law. India’s legendary skipper Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi and former Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Shaharyar Khan are cousins. The two have left for the pastures of heaven while their ancestors trace back to Bhopal.
A bridge of peace?
In his book ‘Shadows Across the Playing Field’, along with co-author Shashi Tharoor, Khan wrote: “Carefully handled, cricket could act as a bridge of peace.” Meanwhile, Tharoor remained cautionary: “In today’s India, even suggesting that a Pakistani victory deserves congratulation would be decried as anti-national.” And yet hope lingers even while the actual game has been reduced to sporadic events.
Readers of a certain vintage will all have specific memories. It could be Javed Miandad’s last-ball six off Chetan Sharma to win the Austral-Asia Cup at Sharjah in 1986. There was the bust-up between Venkatesh Prasad and Aamer Sohail during the 1996 World Cup quarterfinal at Bangalore, as it was known then. If pathos is your preferred mood, then look no further than Sunil Gavaskar’s last Test innings, a magnificent 96 in a losing cause against Imran Khan’s men in the 1987 Bangalore Test. And if adrenaline shots define you, then there is Sachin Tendulkar’s upper-cut six off Shoaib Akhtar at Centurion during the 2003 World Cup in South Africa.
This is sport at its most intense where every moment is infused with a larger-than-life aura. There was a time when India faltered in World Cups but solace was found in the good old triumph over Pakistan. It was akin to finding succour in a Tendulkar hundred while losing overseas Tests.
For all of India’s dominance over Pakistan during the last decade and a half, there was a phase especially in the 1980s and early 1990s, when Pakistan seemingly had the edge, especially at Sharjah. Aaqib Javed would get a hat-trick, the Pakistani batters would score at will and India would wilt under the desert skies.
Unique dynamic: Javed Miandad (batting) and Dilip Vengsarkar would be at each other’s throats on the field but would share rotis, curry and laughter off it. | Photo credit: Hindu Photo Archives
In these threads of varying shades, there was good old banter. Akram once spoke about how Miandad and Dilip Vengsarkar would be at each other’s throats during the game but at night they would sit together and share rotis, curry and laughter. Miandad once did exaggerated jumps while mimicking wicketkeeper Kiran More, and it is another amusing visual linked to Indo-Pak cricket!
During the 2019 World Cup in England, Akram and Kapil, fellow commentators, would hang out together, checking out the sights and sounds of London. These are all pointers to the warm cliche of ‘people to people contact’ that the candlelight-vigil initiators like the late journalistic duo of Kuldip Nayar and Vinod Mehta used to propagate.
But sport isn’t immune from the larger designs of life, especially geopolitics, terrorism and religious schisms. Whenever India and Pakistan play, a parallel drama ripples into view. The scrutiny around the two Mohammeds — Shami and Siraj, and the inferences about words uttered on air by Irfan Pathan and Mohammad Kaif does get stifling. The quartet are as Indian as anyone else and reflexively Irfan would overreact and taunt the western neighbour on X (formerly Twitter).
Old kinships, shared notes
Sunshine lingers though, as an Akram would impart his knowledge about left-arm fast bowling to his Indian successors like Zaheer Khan. Mohammad Azharuddin would offer batting tips to Younis Khan. Perhaps it is all about passing it on, as once the great Abbas worked on a struggling Azharuddin’s batting grip and fortunes instantly changed.
Old kinships forged while playing county cricket in England may be lost in nostalgia’s cobwebs but modern players find their ways to share notes despite an international boundary that is intimidating. Presently, India holds the edge over Babar Azam’s men but it is all restricted to limited-overs cricket. Surely it is a tragedy that Virat Kohli, skipper Rohit Sharma and R. Ashwin will eventually bow out without having played a single Test against Pakistan.
Jasprit Bumrah, Rishabh Pant, Shaheen Afridi and Fakhar Zaman inherit a rivalry that is rich with the tales of the past but one that tragically looks very sparse in terms of future engagements. The odd ODI and T20I is all they might get for a crack at the neighbour.
Bygone era: The days of Imran Khan and Sunil Gavaskar batting together or modelling for an Indian soft drink look so utopian now. | Photo credit: Getty Images
India last toured Pakistan for the 2008 Asia Cup. Since then much water has flowed down the Indus and while the neighbour had no qualms playing last year’s World Cup game at Ahmedabad, there is hesitation from the Indian quarter to reciprocate. Those days of Imran and Gavaskar modelling for an Indian soft drink look so utopian.
