Cricket World Cup 2015: Politicians in India and Pakistan should give peace, and cricket, a chance

More than a billion people are expected to watch India and Pakistan play each other in the World Cup on Sunday. There is no sporting rivalry in any discipline that can boast such massive appeal. In cricket, even the Ashes contest between England and Australia - with its 100-plus-years legacy - does not quite compare today.

Sport tied to history, heritage, legacy and nostalgia makes for a heady concoction for fans and offers fantastic scope for financial exploitation.

For all its appeal, however, Indo-Pak cricket remains vulnerable to several extraneous factors. Sunday’s match, for instance, is only the seventh ODI between the teams since the 2011 World Cup semi-final when it could well have been twice that number.

The complex geo-socio-politics of the sub-continent has put cricket in a peculiar situation from which a lateral growth path seems difficult. Interestingly though, history shows that cricket has been both the wedge and a bridge between the two countries.

For instance, after the 1965 war cricketing ties were among the earliest and hardest hit. For 17 years after there were no matches between the two countries. And yet it was the resumption of cricket that helped thaw relations rapidly in 1977-78.

Since then, the pendulum has swung this way or the other, the political temperature and mood in New Delhi and Islamabad deciding whether the two countries were playing cricket or not. But it is also pertinent to note that at least on a couple of occasions, cricket diplomacy staved off armed confrontations.

Indo-Pak cricket has been a roller-coaster ride. The volatile relationship between the two countries was bound to impact fans, but even more the players in either country. With so much emotion and national pride at stake, when it comes to business in the middle, neither side wants to lose. This often prevents match play between India and Pakistan rising to great heights.

This was particularly true in the 1950s, the decade after Partition, when feelings ran particularly high. This engulfed not only fans and players, but also umpires from both sides whose partisanship was barely concealed.

Not that feeling don’t run high now, but there are far more checks and balances inbuilt into the sport to prevent unhealthy outbreaks. Neutral umpires for instance, who have taken away the reason for one or the other side feeling duped in defeat.

Also, players from both countries are far friendlier with each other today. The realisation that sporting rivalry can be extremely intense without becoming enmity has been sort of reached. This is one of the biggest boons of sport: players, as role models, can influence the young and future generations to shrug off prejudices.

The most productive period for Indo-Pak cricket was between 1980 and 2005 when several series were played (interspersed with some barren spells of course) and marked by the explosion of one-day cricket.

There are no draws in ODIs (though ties and no results are possible) which is what fans in both countries actually desired to see. This built up a frenzy, creating a massive demand which at one point seemed almost impossible to fulfill; so much so that "special" tournaments were created in Sharjah and Canada to exploit the passion of cricket fans from both countries.

Thousands of expats watched it at the grounds where the matches were played and millions remained glued like zombies to their TV sets on either side of the border in the Indian sub-continent. – apart from spinning off billions of dollars for enterpreneurs like Sharjah’s Abdul Rahman Bukhatir. Over time, these too lapsed.

With bilateral contests between the two countries often at the mercy of the political mood on either side, or made circumstantially impossible (like in the aftermath of 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai or on the Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore in 2009), ICC tournaments like the World Cup or the Champions Trophy provide the only consistent avenue for India and Pakistan to play each other.

These matches are now not just coveted by fans from both countries, but Indo-Pak rivalry has also become the object of much interest (and some envy too for the financial windfall it guarantees) for everybody in the cricket universe and beyond.

It is hardly likely to be different in Adelaide on Sunday when the two countries open their campaigns in the 2015 World Cup. Whatever the outcome, it promises to be a melodramatic game that will have the entire sub-continent in thrall.

But what happens after the World Cup? Will Indo-Pak cricket revive or continue to flounder?

Heads of state of SAARC countries have wished each other luck for the tournament. The most relevant in this are obviously, the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan who understand the value of cricket in connecting with their people and others in the region.

But how does it progress beyond scoring brownie points and populist rhetoric?

I would venture that sports between India and Pakistan should be encouraged despite the apparently unending obstacles. Cricket in this context can play a crucial, curative role in the sub-continent rather than just another political toy that is revived or dumped whimsically. At the very least, off-shore cricket can be pursued without compunction.

Even at the height of the Cold War, for instance, sporting relations between the Western and Eastern blocs were kept alive. The path was hardly straight or the course smooth, but sport allowed a dialogue of sorts to continue.

The prime ministers of the two countries have played out the homilies for the World Cup. Now they should reboot and take fresh guard for what lies beyond. This does not mean abdicating a position on matters of national interest. Rather, giving peace a chance.