A cricket match between India and Pakistan is always highly charged, excessively hyped and becomes a matter of national pride both to the Indians and Pakistanis.

This is what happened in the World Cup semi final played last Wednesday. It was a war fought without weapons on a field of cricket field by two arch rivals. A proxy war through cricket.

In India and Pakistan cricket has become a religion. Before the match, fans and supporters from both sides went to the mosques and temples to pray to God for victory for their teams. Why is God being involved in sports? That is beyond me. Matches are won and lost on the merit, ability and talent of the players and not through prayers.

It was called the mother of all matches, because victory for the winner becomes a matter of national pride and for the loser a matter of shame. Cricket players from both sides become heroes, if they win and zeros if they lose. There is no sense of proportion nor any logic in it. It arouses strong emotions and passion when these two teams play.

After all it is a cricket match, one side has to win and one side has to lose, but for the Indians and Pakistanis it is no so. This put tremendous pressure on players and officials on both sides. This pressure, hype and hostility is created by the media, politicians and religious leaders. This trend is very disturbing. Such tension and high expectations from each side is not seen in any other cricket match in the world, whether England and Australia are playing the “Ashes”, or West Indies playing Sri Lanka or Bangladesh playing India or any other match for that matter.

India and Pakistan came to a standstill last Wednesday to watch this semi-final, this semi-final match was more important to the Indians and Pakistanis than the final itself. Either of them would not mind losing the final but not this semi-final. This pressure cooker pressure specially affects the performance of the players and impedes them from playing their natural and fluent game. Cricket should be played in a sportsman’s spirit and not in a war spirit. After all it is only a game. Players from both sides get on very well both on the field and off the field, but other forces create this atmosphere of hostility.

This cricket match in particular created history because the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Yusuf Ali Gillani the Prime Minister of Pakistan watched this match together in Mohalli. Yusuf Ali Gillani the Prime Minister of Pakistan had come to India on the invitation of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and this was the first high level meeting between the India and Pakistan on the Indian soil after the Mumbai incident.

Hopefully this historic meeting would pave the way to resolve their differences and restore normal relations between two neighbouring countries, to live in peace, harmony and prosperity.

Baldev Sharma
Exeter Road, Rayners Lane