Reuters
Fans dressed in India and Pakistani colors before the clash of the 2023 World Cup in Ahmedabad
Roaring crowds, faces painted in blue and green, flags waving like battle standards.
This is the opening of the greatest rivalry: India against Pakistan, a new Netflix documentary on one of the most legendary cricket competitions.
Virender Sehwag in India sets the tone: “It is a larger competition between the bat and the ball”. Cut of dramatic images of certain matches, the Wagah border, the partition refugees. A nation was divided in two, but forever linked by cricket.
The Waqar Younis of Pakistan does not hesitate: “I put this rivalry at the top. There is no match like India against Pakistan.” India R Ashwin agrees: “I think it’s bigger than ashes.” Ramiz Raja says that it is “the political garnish that makes this world class rivalry”.
Despite wars, border conflicts and terrorist attacks, the cricket rivalry in India-Pakistan has endured, motivated by history and national pride. Even when politics stops the bilateral series, international cricket council tournaments (ICC) keep fire in life, transforming each match into high issues.
But Sunday, the overwhelming defeat of Pakistan against India to the Champions Trophy rekindled the question: this rivalry is sustained, supported by slogans as “war less the shooting” – a sentence that George Orwell invented in 1945 To criticize excessive nationalism in sport?
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Virat Kohli famous after India won Sunday’s match against Pakistan in Dubai
Is this always the first cricket confrontation, or just one of its most dramatic? Did he lose his competitive advantage, operating more on history than intensity?
Consider this. From a battery of eight tenure in 2018 to a demolition of 228 points in 2023, India dominated, winning six of the last eight ODI. Pakistan’s last victory? The 2017 Champions Trophy final – a discolving memory in an increasingly unilateral rivalry.
What rivalry, asked Dawn – a first Pakistani newspaper – pointed ostensibly after the last debacle. A cricket war that is only a big yawn, India Today magazine.
The loss would be easier to accept if Pakistan was fighting at least, according to Dawn Zohaib Ahmed Ahmed.
Majeed thinks that the troubled policy between the two neighbors is the only thing that has maintained rivalry.
“In a way, we must thank the politicians of these two nations for having kept this rivalry alive, because the cricket players, in particular on our side, are certainly unable to present a show worthy of its invoicing,” said -Als written.
“Cut the war of words and real wars and what you will find yourself is a professional cricket unit against a random team gathered at the last minute. There is no rivalry with regard to merits pure cricket. “
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The broadcasters aroused the competition as the “greatest rivalry” of cricket “in cricket”
India was no less acerbic today. “With its history of unilateral losses against India in recent years, Pakistani cricket is quickly slipping into the territory of Pitios. And unless it reverses the trend, Pakistan’s dream to compete with India could soon Transforming into a piece of jokes for cricket fans, “wrote Sandipan Sharma.
To be true, Pakistan cricket problems continue to go up. They missed the Final Four in the last three ODI World Cups, collapsed in the group phase of the T20 World Cup and now, as hosts in the Champions Trophy, they hit rock-boot.
Since the 2009 attack on the Sri Lanka team bus, Pakistani cricket has fought against isolation, political disorders, instability of the board of directors, frequent coaching changes and selection controversies – all adding to his difficulties. Meanwhile, on the other side of the border, India has increased as a cricket power, supported by a solid national system and the IPL, the richest International Cricket League.
The Pakistani cricket writer Osman Samuddin also notes a feeling of “marginalization” among the cricket players of his country, who remain excluded from the IPL and his franchise ecosystem (no Pakistani player presented in the IPL Since 2009, because they have been prohibited after Mumbai’s terrorist attacks). . “I think they also see Indian cricket players and others, such as Australian and English cricket players, as participating in a cricket world from which they have been excluded,” he told a program .
All of this contributed to the team’s rapid discharge fortune.
“It’s a futile exercise to wonder if it’s the lowest Pakistani cricket.” Sidharth Monga wrote to Espncricinfo after Sunday’s match.
“This slide resembles a drop in the terminal. Defeated defeats from the victory jaws.”
AFP
Indian fans are delighted after their team’s victory on Sunday in a movie theater near Delhi
AFP
… while Pakistani fans according to the fortune of their team in Karachi seems discouraged
The story of the “war without cannons” had a weight, especially when Pakistan of Imran Khan, armed with a formidable rhythmic attack by Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis and stars of the striker like Javed Mianda and Inzamam-Ul-Haq , regularly benefited from India.
“The story may have been true until the early 2000s because that’s what fans felt. But it was soon diverted by multinationals and the media to enjoy the hyper-Pathos of everything This “, author of Nadeem Farooq, Pakistani author, Pakistani author and columnist, told me.
“The quality of the cricket between the two parties is no longer the same. More than willing to pocket its financial advantages.”
The cricket plates and the diffusers do everything they can to maintain the rivalry alive, and the ICC does not compose the overhaul – it is too precious in an era of overexposure of cricket, limited stars and competition of the Cricket franchise.
This game has become a financial mastodon, fueling a parallel economy wherever it is played – Dubai, London, Ahmedabad – Draw fans who spend big just to be there. “Pakistan has talent, but the competition is now more psychological,” said Cricket writer Gautam Bhattacharyya.
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Pakistan cricket has been on the slide for a few years
The consultant of the brand Santosh Desai considers that the real competition between the rivals of the arc takes place beyond the cricket field and that “rivalry prosper more in the imagination than in reality”.
“Asymmetry (between the two parties) only fueling media threshing. The domination of India makes it an easy story to sell, a royal battle where the result feels predetermined. If Pakistan won coherently , the marketing call would fade. “Said Desai.
The vice-captain of India, Shubman Gill, rejects the word of surprise, calling him a competition that fans love to watch. “It is an exciting competition when these two teams play. Everyone likes to watch it. If so many people are happy to watch the match, then who are we to say that he is subcontracted or over-type” , he told journalists in Eve on Sunday of Sunday game.
Gill may be right. Tickets for India -Pakistan games are still flying shelves – the ICC has reported sales in a few minutes. An amazing 600 million viewers have passed to watch Sunday’s match on the Indian streaming platform Jiohotstar, establishing new records.
But for the moment, as the Cricket writer Ayaz Memon says, “the threshing media is more exciting than the cricket itself”.
