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India’s participation in next year’s Asian Cup is in doubt as cricket committee officials ruled out teams traveling to Pakistan for the tournament. On the eve of Sunday’s match at the World T20 tournament, the BBC reported on how the subcontinent’s rivals were on the field, even during war. I look back on how I was enjoying the friendly relationship.
Indian legend Sunil Gavaskar said when his teammates shared a dressing room with their Pakistani counterparts for nearly four months even though their South Asian neighbors were fighting a war on the subcontinent. I remember
More than 7,000km away in Australia, cricket stars from the subcontinent were among the rest of the world’s teams who played over six games with the hosts. In December 1971, Bangladesh won independence from Pakistan, ending a nine-month civil war.
In his memoir, Gavasker, one of the best opening hitters ever, wrote that “despite what was going on, there was absolutely no tension between the Indian and Pakistani players.” increase.
Six players on the remaining 17-member world team, led by Gary Sobers, were from the subcontinent. Gavaskar, spirited spin legend Bishen Bedi and intrepid wicketkeeper batsman Farokh Engineer were selected by the Indians to join the team. Pakistan was represented by brilliant batsman Zahir Abbas, virtuoso all-rounder Intihab Alam and pace bowler Asif Massoud.
“Almost every night we went out to eat at a Pakistani-owned restaurant. The owner heard reports from various radio news bulletins, wrote them down in Urdu on paper napkins and gave them to Intiqab. almost glimpsed it. Crumple it up and throw it away,” Gavasker wrote in his 1976 book Sunny Days.
On the field, fellow international cricketers snorted softly about their subcontinental rivals. “I took advantage of the situation and imagined a really funny situation,” said Hilton Ackerman of South Africa, who started batting with Gavasker.
One of them was that Aram and the Engineer “faced with bayonets, in fighter planes, with Asif Massoud on the tail, Bishen and Zahir trying to escape”.
“We had a good laugh,” writes Gavasker.
Off the field, there were some concerns.
Bedi said the engineer told a local journalist that he was “concerned about the safety of his wife and daughters as his home in Bombay (now Mumbai) was on the sea and was going to ask him to return to Lancashire”. It seems that he was dissatisfied. [where Engineer had a house]” wrote Gavaskar. And Spinner, who did not speak to reporters, was “disturbed by the war because his hometown of Amritsar was close to the Pakistani border.”
Gavaskar’s memory of Indian and Pakistani athletes sharing a dressing room during the Bangladesh War was a strained relationship between nuclear-armed rivals – both of whom fought two wars and a limited dispute over Kashmir. shows how it didn’t really get in the way of their relationship. cricket player.
Pakistan had not played international cricket for five years after the 1947 partition of British India. Pakistan toured India in 1952 when the two countries played their first Test match. In an exotic corner of Indian cricket’s vast history, Ramachandra Guha spoke about the tour, explaining the complex and contradictory relationship between the game and the tense politics of his two rivals.
The back page of Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper, once owned by Pakistan’s founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah, said the team “leaves a good impression,” despite the headline on the front page saying: ..they are goodwill ambassadors…’.Bharat [India] to build up her forces in occupied Kashmir.”
By all accounts the tour was a success. Efforts by radical Hindu groups to garner public support for a boycott of tests in Calcutta (now Kolkata) failed miserably as large numbers turned out to watch the games. India won the 5 Test series 2-1.
India and Pakistan have only played 58 Test matches in the last 70 years. India and Australia played 97 Test matches in the same period.
Many of the early bilateral series between India and Pakistan were tasteless affairs that ended in a draw, including one in India in 1960-61. The two countries did not play each other for 17 years until India visited Pakistan in 1978, allowing them to resume cricket ties.
The two sides competed with each other for the next two decades until politics again disrupted relations. This time, India refused to play and accused its neighbor of fomenting bloody riots in the Kashmir region, an allegation Pakistan denied. A major diplomatic initiative after the conflict in Kargil led the Indian team to visit Pakistan in 2003-2004.
For the next four years, the tour was held annually until the bloody Mumbai terrorist attacks in November 2008 halted the bilateral tour. The only exception was when Pakistan toured India in his five-game whiteball series from 2012 to 2013, winning 3–2. The Pakistani continues to be left out of India’s Premier League, the richest cricket tournament in the world. Indian historian Mukul Kesavan wrote in an essay: “It is difficult to find a parallel in the world of cricket for this complex on-off relationship.
Sportswriter Suresh Menon says the rivalry between India and Pakistan is generally more intense in the hearts and minds of supporters than players.
Indian players have always spoken of the love and admiration they received from Pakistani fans. In 1955, thousands of fans gathered at Karachi Airport to welcome the Indian cricketer. Whenever Indian players went shopping while on tour in Pakistan, the shops often refused to accept money from them.
According to Menon, the recent social media battle has led to “believing that a victory on the cricket field is conclusive proof that one political system, one religion, or one country is superior to another. It is one of the sport’s greatest games, and its unique rivalry continues to influence the subcontinent’s turbulent politics.
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