If you are above 40 years of age, you will be able to recall a time when an IndvsPak encounter would bring everything else to an absolute standstill. It had the power, nay the magical power, of making everything that was not about that clash blur into the background.
In today’s frenetic world – jahan rukna mana hai (where pausing is not an option) – no sporting encounter can realistically have that effect, though an India vs Pakistan cricket match still tries to do its best to grab people’s attention even before the first ball is bowled.
But let’s be honest. India vs Pakistan is no longer the fierce on-field rivalry it once was. Gone are the
spikes and direct aggression, but the suspense of which team will come out on top that day remains a remnant of its former self. It’s almost a one-way street in favor of the blue team. So, can this battle be given nicknames like “the mother of all cricket battles” or “the main battle”?
I grew up in Calcutta in the 1980s and I clearly remember the deserted streets (the traffic was 1000 times less than today anyway), the shops with their shutters down early and people returning from work excited for one of these matches. A cricket or hockey match between India vs Pakistan or a football match between Mohun Bagan vs East Bengal. You don’t see anything like that anywhere today.
Yes, the stadiums are always full when these two teams play and there is some excitement but people still ask “India Pakistan kab hai?” (When is India playing Pakistan?) but realistically an open battle is expected every year. When these two Asian giants face off? Ask yourself this question. What honest answer can you give?
Over the decades, cricket as a game has changed, players and teams have changed, jerseys have changed, administration has changed, players have become more popular, social media has taken over our lives, more and more money has flowed into the sport. But the one thing that has remained constant has been the fascination of an India vs Pakistan cricket match, regardless of the format. That’s because before an India vs Pakistan match you didn’t know who was going to win.
One-on-one both teams looked good.
“It’s going to be Indian batting vs Pakistan bowling” – that was a common refrain until the early 2000s. The way Sachin Tendulkar beat one of the fastest bowlers of all time, Shoaib Akhtar, in the 2003 World Cup Centurion will forever remain legendary.
Incredibly, this tournament, which officially began in 1952 (Pakistan toured India for a Test series, which India won 2-1), surpassed the Ashes, which has been held since 1882, in the scale of rivalry. The title “mother of all cricket battles” was legitimate until a certain point.
And of course, there is also an emotional side to this encounter. Over the years, this meeting has always been more than just a sporting encounter. Decades of political and personal rivalry form the backdrop to every cricket match between the two countries, with emotions running high on both sides of the border and often threatening to overshadow everything else.
It’s perhaps what makes fans in both countries not just hope or pray for their team’s win, but wish with every atom of their being that the other team is thrashed.
But there is another beautiful side too – mutual respect. It’s hard to find that among fans these days, but it will always be that way among players. Kapil Dev says Imran Khan was the best all-rounder for him and Imran says Kapil was always the best. Babar Azam has always been a Virat Kohli fan and Virat gifted Babar a signed India jersey. It will always be a fond memory.
How do you explain the hordes of Virat Kohli fans in Pakistan celebrating a wicket in an India vs Pakistan match as if the match has been won? It is this intangible that traditionally adds a lot of “swad” to India-Pakistan cricket.
For a true cricket fan, without any hatred or resentment, it is of course a chance to see one’s team win against a quality opponent. For others, winning a cricket match against the “biggest rival” is the same as winning a real battle on the battlefield.
The mother of all battles in cricket.
But is it still the same in terms of the quality of the competition on the pitch?
Several things have completely changed for both teams. India has not been a team that relied almost exclusively on batsmen for some time, and while Pakistan has continued to produce fast bowlers almost at will, they rarely cause any real problems for the Indian batsmen. The overall quality of Pakistan’s batsmen has also declined. While Indian cricket has gone from strength to strength thanks to the BCCI’s inflated financial resources, Pakistan’s fortunes have declined sharply in tandem with the country’s political and sports administration.
You can see the kind of awe that Pakistani cricketers feel when they face off against their Indian counterparts.
For a purist, this is rather unfortunate. Is it really fun when a ‘much awaited encounter’ turns into a one-sided contest?
But in an India vs Pakistan match, all the players are aware of what is at stake.
Ask any cricketer from either country and they will tell you that losing this encounter, especially in a World Cup, is their worst nightmare. The backlash is very real. Of course, it was Pakistan’s cricketers who suffered the most from this reaction, due in part to their disastrous defeat against the Men in Blue.
Pakistan had gone into the 1996 ODI World Cup as the defending champions, but when they lost to India in the quarter-finals in Bangalore, they had to fly home under such tight security that they were not allowed to leave their homes for days.
Former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram called the fan backlash “hellish”.
Former India captain Anjum Chopra said in a recent interview, “We never think in the dressing room, ‘What if we lose?’ The only time such a thought occurs is when we play against Pakistan.”
Pakistan are yet to beat India in the ODI World Cup. They in fact managed to break their overall World Cup jinx against the Men in Blue in the 2021 T20 World Cup, when unbeaten half-centuries by Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan took them to a 10-wicket win in Dubai. They finally had a World Cup win against India in 13 attempts.
India beat Pakistan by 4 wickets in the next edition in 2022 in the Super 12s.
And then last year, in Ahmedabad, India stamped their authority on the contest yet again, beating the Men in Green by 7 wickets in the ODI World Cup.
No unbiased cricket expert can really put their finger on why Pakistan almost always loses to India in World Cups. Some feel it’s the toss factor (India have won most of the tosses vs Pak in World Cups overall), some say it’s because India players handle the pressure better, some feel recent Pakistan teams are mentally not strong enough to believe that they can beat India.
Whatever the reason, it always seems like a long shot for Pakistan to beat India in the World Cup, and it is. So, is the allure of the tournament still the same?
Those who believe the aura of an India vs Pakistan cricket match has faded cite India’s dominance, especially in ICC tournaments, as the main reason.
India has won eight out of eight matches against the Men in Green in the ODI World Cup and seven out of eight matches in the T20 World Cup. Compare this to Pakistan’s traditional overall dominance over India in ODIs (Pakistan has won 73 out of 135 ODIs overall against India and lost 57), and you can understand why many feel that the allure of an India vs Pakistan World Cup match has faded a little.
Incredibly, the two teams did not meet in the first four ODI World Cups (from 1975 to 1987). The two teams lost in the semi-finals of the 1987 tournament and met for the first time in the 1992 World Cup. And since then, India has almost always featured in the winners list.
After these two teams stopped playing cricket between the two countries, ICC tournaments remained the only arena where the two teams could face each other directly. So, the wait for an India vs Pakistan match became longer, but the outcome was almost always the same.
There’s no doubt that this tournament needs a strong pick-me-up. The sad thing is that we may not see such a spectacle in the ongoing T20 World Cup.
On Sunday, June 9, 2024, the two current teams will meet in a venue they have never met before: the brand new Nassau County Cricket Stadium in New York. Not many would have imagined that these two traditional rivals would one day face off in the Big Apple. But that’s exactly what awaits us on Sunday.
Incidentally, the ICC and USA Cricket also didn’t make it easy for fans to maintain the excitement of the India vs Pakistan matches this World Cup.
First, there’s the time zone. All of India’s matches, except for the one against Canada, are scheduled on weekdays or Sundays (India vs Pakistan) and start at 8pm EST. For most people, the days after these matches are all work days. Games can go on till midnight or even beyond.
Then there are the very, very expensive tickets.
After the India-Ireland match was played in front of many empty stands, the India-Pakistan match could face the same fate.
Edition after edition, the league stage India vs Pakistan match at a cricket World Cup is always the first one that is sold-out. The two teams are always in the same group, because this is the match that attracts the maximum gate receipts and eyeballs. It is the marquee clash of the competition. Tickets virtually evaporate after the window opens.
According to reports, Cricket USA had claimed that fans showed great interest in the India vs Pakistan match in New York. It’s quite a big surprise in that context to read news reports that tickets for this mega clash have not been sold out (at the time of writing this article) – possibly for the first time ever in a World Cup in recent history. The pricing of the tickets is being cited as the major reason, with the $300 (just over Rs 25,000) general admission tickets all being sold out. The hospitality tickets are priced between $2500 and $10,000. The mind-boggling price of these tickets defies logic at a time when the ICC is trying to popularise the sport in America.
Why would someone unfamiliar with the sport choose to watch a match when the tickets are so prohibitively expensive? And how many in the cricket-savvy Asian community in the US can afford to watch such an expensive India vs Pakistan World Cup match? Remember, fans need to consider not just the ticket price but also travel, accommodation, food, etc.
And when you consider that the New York stadium only has a capacity of about 34,000 compared to, say, Ahmedabad’s stadium, which attracted 132,000 spectators for a sold-out match between the arch rivals in the 2023 ODI World Cup.
And New York has a stadium. Anyone who has been paying close attention to the tournament so far would have noticed the seam movement and bounce of these courts. In the India vs Ireland match, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant and Harry Tector were tricked and hit on the body by rebounds. In fact, Rohit had to retire due to injury.
The New York match will be played on a drop-in pitch imported from Australia, prepared in Florida since December last year, using unique technology honed over a decade at the Adelaide Oval.
But these places are clearly not well prepared. There has been very little cricket going on. At least on paper, no one knows how the uniforms used will perform in the biggest match of the tournament, Sunday.
The New York adventure that the ICC wanted to take its cricket fans to may not be what the doctor ordered to revive the fading charm of the India vs Pakistan World Cup match.
India will again be the overwhelming favourite to win. Not only because Pakistan is the more consistent team (India is ranked 1st and Pakistan 6th in the ICC T20I Team Rankings), but also because Pakistan is already far behind after its unexpected defeat to co-hosts USA in the opening match. Who would have expected the USA to top the Group A points table at this point in the tournament? In many ways, the result was reminiscent of the Netherlands’ four-wicket loss to England in 2009.
If the USA can win their two remaining group games – and they realistically can at least win against Ireland on June 14 – they will have six points. This means that even if Pakistan wins all three of their remaining games, they will be tied with the USA on points and the battle may come down to net run rate.
And one of the three remaining games is against India, a team that will never win at a World Cup.
It’s not a surprise that Wasim Akram has already said that Pakistan will struggle to qualify for the next round – the Super Eights.
As far as the cricketing acumen of the two sides is concerned, the one thing Pakistan will be banking on is a superlative performance by their fast bowlers. They have genuine quicks like Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf and Mohammad Amir at their disposal and going by how the New York pitches have been behaving, they will be hoping for a snorter of a track to trouble the Indian batters.
But, having said that, these are the four pacers they fielded against the USA and they could take just three wickets between them. Of course that match was played in Dallas. Also, India boast of a good fast bowling attack too. The likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj and Hardik Pandya could make the Pakistan batters dance to their tunes on pitches that very clearly have more than a few demons in them.
Will this match be a throwback to the earlier days of this rivalry – India’s batting vs Pakistan’s bowling? Will it be another one-sided contest? How treacherous will the pitch be and how much will that tilt the balance?
Team India remember hasn’t won an ICC trophy since the 2013 Champions Trophy. They haven’t won the T20 World Cup since the inaugural edition in 2007. Last year, when they had a golden opportunity of breaking their ICC tournament jinx, they fell at the final hurdle against Australia in the ODI World Cup, at home. Needless to say, their drive will be hunger. Pakistan’s will be survival.
What the playing conditions manage to deliver at the end of the day will determine just how big a first-bite cricket can take out of the Big Apple.
