India versus Pakistan cricket rivalry

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The Indian and Pakistani cricket teams have been long-time arch rivals, and their rivalry is considered to be the most intense and pressurizing battle in not only cricket but also in all of sports. An India-Pakistan cricket match has been estimated to attract up to a billion television viewers, and defeat is usually unacceptable to fans of both teams.

1 Background
2 India v Pakistan matches
3 Head-to-head records
4 References

[edit] Background

The bloodshed and hatred created during the partition of India in 1947 had lengthy ramifications. A root cause was the dispute between the two nations about the region of Jammu & Kashmir which is located between them. This feud has affected both their diplomatic and political relations and their gaming rivalries.

From the beginning of the 21st century, prospects have remained bright for an enduring thaw in the relationship of the two countries, but it is a fact that for too long Indo-Pakistani cricket was equated with Indo-Pakistani war as two sides of the same coin. How horrific the scenario was can be gauged from the remarks of an Australian cricket commentator some time ago. He amused, indeed shocked, TV viewers when he began his commentary with a stark observation before the start of an India v Pakistan cricket match in the 2003 Cricket World Cup: "There is always great interest in India and Pakistan for they have fought three wars. There has been no war since 1999. So there is so much more excitement in this match". A critic may dismiss it as a diabolic sense of humour and pardon the imaginative commentator. But nevertheless it was not far from the truth - at least until recently.

[edit] India v Pakistan matches

For some years, the Indian and Pakistani cricket teams played each other in non-Test-playing nations such as Canada or the United Arab Emirates, where they would be unlikely to receive a large audience. On occasion, they threatened to boycott matches against each other arising from World Cup draws.

In this prevailing context, cricket assumes a much larger significance than it should. A loss at the hands of the other was (and probably still is) considered nothing less than national failure. Instances when the players' homes were pelted after a match was lost were not uncommon. Over-zealous supporters even burned effigies of a losing team's players or even of individual players that had simply performed less than well. A successful team and successful players could expect to be given hero status for months after the victory. Thus both the teams were under tremendous pressure to perform well and win. With both teams trying their level best, the matches often became very exciting.

It was after the 1999 Kargil Conflict that much of the hatred transformed into a peaceful rivalry between the teams. They played each other in Australia in the 1999-2000 Triangular Series. The two teams met in the 1999 Cricket World Cup, in the Super Six part of tournament where India won against Pakistan but lost against Australia and New Zealand. Pakistan went on to face Australia in the finals. In the 2003 Cricket World Cup, they again met each other in the Super Six section where India achieved a memorable victory and later went on to appear in the Finals. Then, in the 2003-04 season, India completed a tour of Pakistan in which there were rare scenes of Indian and Pakistani supporters in unison, followed in early 2005 by a reciprocal tour by Pakistan in India to complete 3 Tests and 6 ODIs. Indian and Pakistani fans joined together in what was described as "cricket diplomacy".^[1]^[2]

An interesting fact is that even though India have lost roughly 60% of their matches against Pakistan, India have always defeated Pakistan in World Cup tournaments. This was best exemplified in the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 where both teams played out two close encounters with India just about managing to get the better of Pakistan in both matches. The first encounter was a group match which ended in a tie and had to be decided via international cricket's second ever bowl-out. The other match was the final of the tournament which resulted in India taking home the cup after emerging champions.

Many now refer to an Indo-Pak series as the "Friendship Series". The series between the teams in Canada in the 1990s and early 2000s were officially known as the "Friendship Cup".^[3]

A match between these two nations was organized to be in Scotland during the summer of 2007 however it was cancelled due to rain.