Pakistan-India series: Waiting for a ‘mauka’ to play again
They say cricket is our religion. Not just in India but also across the border. We give our teams the same do-or-die pressure, we burn effigies if they don’t win and sometimes, lose the plot and lives in post-match heart attacks.
Yet, for many years now, there have been no bilateral cricket relations between India and Pakistan — long enough for Rahul Dravid to become a coach, Wasim Akram to have another child and Arjun, not Sachin to be the Tendulkar on the block.
Despite the BCCI and PCB agreeing, for their different reasons, there is still a chance of a ‘no show’.
Also read: Sri Lanka finalised as hosts for Pakistan-India series
This probably does save Indian Twitter trolls from 'sending cricketers to Pakistan and becoming Shah Rukh and Aamir Khan’s neighbours' (although, we wouldn’t mind at all if a few BCCI officials did cross over).
Calling it cricket diplomacy is taking the game too seriously.
Neither will the series solve the Dawood or Hafiz Saeed or Samjhauta stalemate but, then again, nor will it aggravate it. Some things are best left to the governments.
India and Pakistan have many things in common, not the least of them are the three wars. Yet, cricket has been an integral part on both sides and the hysterical reactions associated with it are almost identical.
Shoaib Akhtar’s tirade against his team’s performance in the World Cup earlier this year went viral in India. We understood it because we hear the same.
I have often wondered why the Indo-Pak series have never been given a name. Despite that, they have more drama and rivalry than the Ashes. For cricket lovers, on both sides of the border, the emotions are more real than Priyanka Chopra’s accent in Quantico.
Also read: Pakistan-India series — ‘Cricket and politics cannot be kept apart’
All those who say otherwise have either never called in sick on match day or searched the whole night for that safe place where they stored the national flag after the last series.
Just as there is a saying jisne Lahore nahi dekhya woh jamya nahi, (you haven’t seen anything if you haven’t seen Lahore) I have my own version in cricketing terms, jisne India-Pakistan match Mohali mein nahi dekhya woh asli fan nahi (He who hasn’t watched an India-Pakistan match in Mohali is not a true fan.).
Happily, I can tick this off my bucket list.
I watched the Indo-Pak World Cup semi-final at Mohali in Punjab in 2011. Nothing compares to that experience. I could try saying it in Ramiz Raja’s crisp English that the ‘atmosphere was charged’ but that would be an understatement. Nor would a win at Lords ever come close.
The bhangra party started kilometres away from the stadium. With faces painted and flags raised high, strangers singing on the streets became back-slapping mates instantly.
To get into the stadium wasn’t easy, and standing in those long queues patiently wasn’t ‘made in India’. Above us, almost a hundred chartered flights delivered passengers on that day alone.
It was not even time for the toss when a big roar drowned ‘chak de India’. If you are a Punjabi like me, you would know, everything is loud. The roar is deafening, the music is thunderous and the curses are, well, let’s just say, intense.