India–Pakistan cricket rivalry
The India–Pakistan cricket rivalry is one of the most intense sports rivalries in the world.[2][3] An India-Pakistan cricket match has been estimated to attract up to one billion viewers, according to TV ratings firms and various other reports.[4][5][6] The 2011 World Cup semifinal between the two teamsattracted around 988 million television viewers.[7][8][9]
The arch-rival relations between the two nations, resulting from the extensive communal violence and conflict that marked the Partition of British India into India and Pakistan in 1947 and the subsequentKashmir conflict, laid the foundations for the emergence of an intense sporting rivalry between the two nations who had erstwhile shared a common cricketing heritage. The first Test series between the two teams took place in 1951-52, when Pakistan toured India. India toured Pakistan for the first time in 1954-55. Between 1962 and 1977, no cricket was played between the two countries owing to two major wars in 1965 and 1971. The1999 Kargil War and the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks have also interrupted cricketing ties between the two nations.
The growth of large expatriate populationsfrom India and Pakistan across the world led to neutral states like the United Arab Emiratesand Canada hosting several bilateral and multilateral ODI series involving the two teams. Players in both teams routinely face intense pressure to win, and are threatened by extreme reactions in defeat. Extreme fan reactions to defeats in key matches such as in the ICC Cricket World Cup have been recorded, with a limited degree of violence and public disturbances. At the same time, India-Pakistan cricket matches have also offered opportunities for cricket diplomacy as a means to improve relations between the two countries by allowing heads of state to exchange visits and cricket followers from either country to travel to the other to watch the matches.
History
See also: Indo-Pakistani relations
The partition of British India in 1947 that led to the creation of an independent India and Pakistan was characterised by intense and bloody conflict between Hindus, Muslims andSikhs that left one million people dead. An estimated ten million people migrated to the nation of their choice. The bloody legacy of the partition and the subsequent emergence of territorial disputes and wars being fought over them have all added to the growth of intense rivalries in field hockey, association football but especially in cricket, which had been developed during British colonial ruleand is the most popular sport in both nations. Many of the players in the first post-independence teams of India and Pakistan had played together as team-mates in regional and local tournaments.
Pakistan became a permanent member of theInternational Cricket Council in 1948, and their tour of India was their first in Test cricket history. They lost the first Test in Delhito India, but won the second Test in Lucknow, which led to an angry reaction from the home crowd against the Indian players. India clinched the Test series after winning the third Test in Bombay, but the intense pressure affected the players of both teams to the point that they pursued mainly defensive tactics that led to drawn matches and whole series without a victor. When India toured Pakistan in 1955, thousands of Indian fans were granted visas to go to the Pakistani city of Lahore to watch the Test match. But both the 1955 series and Pakistan's tour of India in 1961 ended in a drawn series with no test yielding a winner or loser. Complaints about the fairness of umpires also became routine. The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 and subsequent Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 put a hold on India-Pakistan cricket that lasted till 1978, when India toured Pakistan and cricket resumed for a brief period. In the post-1971 period, politics became a direct factor in the holding of cricketing events. India has suspended cricketing ties with Pakistan several times following terrorist attacks or other hostilities. The resumption of cricketing ties in 1978 came with the emergence of heads of government in both India and Pakistan who were not directly connected with the 1971 war and coincided with their formal initiatives to normalize bilateral relations. Shortly after a period of belligerency during the Operation Brasstackswar games, Pakistani president Zia-ul-Haqwas invited to watch the India-Pakistan test match being played in the Indian city ofJaipur. This form of cricket diplomacy has occurred several times afterwards as well. Pakistan toured India in 1979, but an Indian tour of Pakistan in 1984 was cancelled mid-way due to the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. In the late 1980s and for most of the 1990s, India and Pakistan squared-off on neutral venues such asSharjah in the United Arab Emirates and inToronto, Canada, where large audiences of expatriates regularly watched them play. The series between the teams in Canada in the 1990s and early 2000s were officially known as the "Friendship Cup". Sharjah even though a neutral venue was considered as the "back yard of Pakistan" given the close proximity and the massive support the team generated.[10] The rise of multinational competitions such as the Cricket World Cup,ICC World Twenty20 the Austral-Asia Cup and the Asia Cup led to more regular albeit briefer contests.
In 1999, immediately following Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's historic visit to Pakistan, the Pakistani team toured India for Test matches and played in an ODI competition before the Kargil War again put bilateral relations in deep freeze. Prime Minister Vajpayee's peace initiative of 2003 led to India touring Pakistan after a gap of almost 15 years. Subsequent exchange tours were held in 2005 and 2006 before the 2008 Mumbai attacks led to the suspension of India's planned tour of Pakistan in 2009 and all future engagements in Pakistan. India was scheduled to begin the tour of Pakistan from 13 January to 19 February 2009, but was cancelled because of the tension existing between the two countries after the terrorist attacks in Mumbai.[11]
The rise of domestic terrorism led to Pakistan not hosting international cricket since the Sri Lankan team was attacked in 2009, and Pakistan was stripped of its co-host status for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011. India and Pakistan qualified for the first semi-final inChandigarh, India, and the Indian government invited the Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to watch the match along with his Indian counterpart, Dr. Manmohan Singh. Bilateral ties finally resumed when BCCI invited the Pakistan national team to tour India for 3 ODIs and 2 T20s in December 2012. The three ODIs were held in New Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai with Ahmedabad and Bangalore hosted two Twenty20 fixtures.[12]
In March 2013, 66 Kashmiri students studying at Swami Vivekanand Subharti University in Meerut, India were expelled and briefly threatened with sedition charges because they cheered for the Pakistani cricket team during a televised match against India at the Asia Cup.[13]
On 27 June 2014, Pakistan Cricket Boardstated that an agreement to play 6 bilateral series has been signed with BCCI during theICC annual conference in Melbourne.[14]
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