CricDigs Blogs

The rivalry between Australia and England may be the oldest in cricket, but nothing compares to the intensity and fierceness of the rivalry in cricket between India and Pakistan. So it is only natural that the people of both these countries rate the contest between these two countries as the greatest contest in cricket, even more than the Ashes.

But unlike the England - Australia rivalry, this cricket rivalry did not start because of any cricketing reason. It has roots in the political situation that has existed between the two countries right from 1947, when the countries were partitioned. For this reason, matches between these two countries are many times termed as wars. More often than not, this is more of a media created hype than what the teams or fans actually feel, but sometimes it does go beyond that.

The two countries began their cricketing relations in 1952, 5 years after independence, with a five match test series in India. The series was keenly contested, but India emerged victorious with a 2-1 margin. For almost 50 years until the turn of the century, Pakistan had enjoyed the upper hand in most of the contests. This phenomenon was more pronounced in the one dayers. Only in the last few matches, the competition has been almost neck and neck, with India being slightly ahead.

It is said that one of the reasons why Pakistan has always enjoyed an upper hand in the contests is because they see it as more than just a game and give it that much more. Pakistan, being the smaller country, has always felt the disadvantage in almost all other aspects of relations with India. So excelling in cricket is considered a matter of national pride, which in turn results in performing with more intensity. Over the years, Indian cricketers have been blamed of being too soft and not having the drive to win against their cross-border counterparts. The interesting thing is that even though Pakistan has a better record against India in ODIs, India has beaten Pakistan in all the 4 matches in the World Cups, one each in 1992, 1996, 1999 and 2003. While in 1992 Pakistan went on to win the World Cup, losses to India in 1996 and 2003 directly resulted in their elimination from those World Cups.

For many years in between, the two countries did not play cricket because of political tensions as a result of multiple wars between them. The players of both countries as well as both the cricket boards have always tried to maintain that they want to keep the game separate from politics. But whatever the players may say, one can be sure that Miandad’s last ball sixer, Aaquib’s hattrick, Sehwag’s 309 and Tendulkar’s match winning 98 including the six over point off Shoaib taste that much more sweeter because they have come against their biggest rivals. The fans, on their part, increase the stakes by expecting more than a hundred percent effort from the players in every India-Pakistan contest. For most of them, a loss is just not an option!