Beyond the Boundary

One the greatest rivalries in the world of cricket has always been between India and Pakistan

- Arijit Ghosh

TRADITIONALLY, the greatest rivalries in the world of cricket have always been between England and Australia, and India and Pakistan. These have played out over generations of cricketers and fans, with the England-Australia rivalry going back all the way to 1877. The India-Pakistan rivalry, which is perhaps much more intense, goes back to 1952, when the two teams first met in a Test series in India, a few years after they had won Independence from the British in 1947. As a colonial parting gift, the British partitioned India into two nations along religious lines and created Pakistan.

The fierce India-Pakistan cricketing rivalry of today has its genesis in the turbulent times of the Partition and the subsequent territorial disputes that followed, which led to two full-fledged wars and numerous 'limited' conflicts, skirmishes and terror attacks, creating much bitterness and lack of trust. All of these contributed to the emergence of the bitter rivalry of today, between two nations, which once shared a common sporting heritage. Showdowns between these two teams are therefore rightly considered to be the most intense contests in the world of sport and are often the most-awaited, most followed, and most viewed of sporting encounters. The strong emotions that an India-Pakistan game inevitably stirs up have only become more intense over the years given their troubled past, and are often much bigger than mere sporting contests, with many other complex connotations hidden just below the surface. Many sports analysts consider these games to be the most intense form of all sporting encounters involving two nations in any sport, anywhere in the world. Players from both teams routinely face extreme pressure to win and are threatened by extreme reactions in defeat.