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 바카라limited바카라 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.
This intense rivalry that has often produced sparkling cricket played on both sides by some of the greatest exponents of the sport, has unfortunately been characterised by a pattern of repeated disruptions, and stoppages extending for many years at a time, whenever diplomatic relations between the two nations have soured after yet another conflict or terror attack.
In terms of the overall number of matches played between these two teams, starting from that first Test Match in October 1952 at Delhi, which India won by an innings and 70 runs, Pakistan has enjoyed the better of the exchanges, winning 12 Test matches to India바카라s nine, and 73 One Day Internationals (ODIs) to India바카라s 52. India, however, has done much better than Pakistan in T20s, winning 10 games to their three.
India has completely dominated exchanges in recent years as the once formidable Pakistan team deteriorated due to internal issues, declining almost spectacularly, of late. Pakistan teams in recent years have been a mere shadow of the great Pakistan sides of the past that proved to be a formidable force in World Cricket for decades. A consistent turnover of great batters, genuine fast bowlers and great spinners continued to replace each other over time. The Pakistan side of today, however, is not a patch on those great teams of the past.
And as far as ICC World Cups go, India are currently way ahead of Pakistan in the head-to-head statistics of these contests, winning 14 of the 15 World Cup encounters between the two countries.
The mind boggles at the thought of the huge sporting talent available in the two countries, and at the prospect of those legends playing on the same team. It is difficult to imagine sides with the likes of Vinoo Mankad, Mushtaq Mohammed, Intikhab Alam, Bishen Singh Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna, Farokh Engineer, Sunil Gavaskar, Zaheer Abbas, Gundappa Vishwanath, Mohinder Amarnath, Javed Miandad, Kapil Dev, Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Shoaib Akhter, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, V.V.S. Laxman, Anil Kumble, Jaspreet Bumrah, Ravichandran Ashwin, Virat Kohli, Babar Azam, etc., all playing together. Sadly, this playing together was not meant to be, except on a few rare occasions when players like Gavaskar, Bedi, Abbas, Mohammed, Alam, Asif Masood and Engineer played together in the Sir Garfield Sobers-led Rest of the World sides of the early 1970s, against England and Australia.
For over three months, cricketers from both nations lived and played together in Australia, from early November 1971 to early February 1972, even as their respective countries fought the 1971 war back home, which led to the birth of a third nation, Bangladesh.
Gavaskar, fresh from his spectacular debut in international cricket at the time, recalls how they would often go out together to a Pakistani restaurant for dinner and the owner would quietly slip a paper napkin to Alam, on which the details of the latest news of the war was scribbled. Alam would quietly toss it away, unread. Gavaskar, one of the greatest opening batsmen of all time, writes in his book Sunny Days that there was 바카라no tension at all between the Indians and Pakistani players despite what was happening back home바카라. This is a wonderful comment on how sport brings people together and bridges the spaces that divide.
In the late 1980s and for most of the 90s, India and Pakistan played each other only at neutral venues such as Sharjah and Toronto, where crowds of Indian and Pakistani expatriates came to watch the matches.
Since the Partition created two separate nations where only one existed earlier, a few Pakistan cricketers played for both countries in Test Cricket, just as some soldiers served in the Armed Forces of both nations at the time and officers who had once fought alongside each other suddenly found themselves fighting on opposite sides. Cricketers who have represented both India and Pakistan in Test Cricket include their first Test Captain, Abdul Hafeez Kardar, who had played three Tests for India prior to the Partition and 23 Tests for Pakistan subsequently. The others on this list are Amir Elahi, who played one Test Match for India and five for Pakistan, and Gul Mohammed, who played eight Tests for India and one for Pakistan.
When India toured Pakistan for the first time in 1955, thousands of Indian fans were granted visas to go to the Pakistani city of Lahore to watch the Test match there, and thousands of Pakistani fans had similarly gathered at the Karachi airport to greet the Indian cricketers. Players recall how shopkeepers in Pakistan would often refuse to take money from them for purchases. And a senior sports journalist remembers how the legendary Zaheer Abbas offered them every help during India바카라s tour of 1984, when the then Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi was assassinated back home, throwing the country into turmoil. The second ODI was in progress on that fateful day, October 31, at Sialkot. It had to be called off midway as the team made an emergency return to India.
Earlier, both the 1955 series and Pakistan바카라s tour of India in 1961 ended in a series of boring draws, which did nothing for the cricketing credentials of the two countries. Complaints about the fairness of umpires also became routine and created ill-feeling between the teams.
The Indo-Pakistan wars of 1965 and 1971 put an end to further sporting contests between the two sides for 17 long years after the 1961 series. A break that lasted all the way till 1978, when India toured Pakistan and cricket between the two countries resumed briefly.
In the late 1980s and for most of the 90s, India and Pakistan played each other only at neutral venues such as Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates and in the Canadian city of Toronto, where large crowds of Indian and Pakistani expatriates regularly turned up to watch the matches. Sharjah, even though a neutral venue, was almost considered to be a home ground for Pakistan because of a large Pakistani fan base and was the scene of some stirring encounters like the Asia Cup of 1984, which India won; and the remarkable last ball six by Javed Miandad off Chetan Sharma바카라 s final over, which brought victory to Pakistan in the Austral-Asia Cup of 1986.
The rise of ICC competitions such as the ODI World Cup, ICC T20 World Cup, ICC Champions Trophy, and the World Championship of Cricket, Austral-Asia Cup and Asia Cup of yore led to fairly regular limited overs contests between the two sides, all played at neutral venues. The growth of large expatriate populations from both countries across the world also facilitated the conduct of matches at neutral venues including those in the US. Tickets for such matches are in huge demand, commanding astronomical premiums on match day. The 2019 Cricket World Cup clash between the two sides was watched by 273 million viewers on television, apart from a packed stadium bursting at the seams. Similar was the case of the showdown in the 2024 ICC T-20 World Cup in New York.
In 1999, immediately after the then Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee바카라s historic visit to Pakistan, the Pakistan team toured India after a gap of 12 years for a series of Test matches and ODIs. The first Test match at Delhi was, however, disrupted by protesters who dug up the wicket at Ferozeshah Kotla, causing the match to be moved to Chennai. Later that year, the Kargil War rekindled simmering tensions between the two nations and cricket was again suspended indefinitely. But a major diplomatic initiative saw the Indian team travelling to Pakistan in 2003-04 again
The next four years saw regular tours, but the November 2008 Mumbai terror attack was like the proverbial last straw and led to the cancellation of India바카라s 2009 tour of Pakistan, coupled with a refusal to play there again. After yet another suspension of cricketing ties, the two countries agreed to play each other at neutral venues in ICC events but India have firmly refused to travel to Pakistan ever since, even for World Cup matches. The situation stayed this way till just before the Pahalgam terror attack on Indian tourists on April 22, 2025. After India launched Operation Sindoor, all sporting contests in this much interrupted rivalry have once again been suspended till further notice. And this time around, it looks like it is for keeps, signifying a breakdown in sporting relations between the two countries. Which is perhaps just as well, because the scars and distrust now run too deep, extending perhaps, even to the common man. Although there would still be a somewhat grudging admiration for iconic cricketers like the Virat Kohlis of both sides. But even in that respect, Pakistan have deteriorated spectacularly in recent years and very few of its players if any, can claim that exalted status now. Yet, not so long ago, their side was full of such stars.
So, the storied rivalry itself has degenerated and is now almost a thing of the past, as is evident from some of the one-sided results of recent India-Pakistan contests. Somewhere along the way, that sporting equation will need to be restored by Pakistan to its earlier status, before the rivalry can thrive again. When and if sporting ties between the two countries resume, that is.
(Views expressed are personal)
Arijit Ghosh is a veteran Indian air force wing commander who played Ranji Trophy for the services, he is the author of the book air warriors
This article appears in Outlook Magazine바카라s June 21, 2025 issue, Innings/Outings, which captures a turning point in Indian cricket 바카라from retiring legends to small-town stars reshaping the game바카라s power map. It appeared in print as 'Beyond The Boundary'.
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This article is part of Outlook Magazine바카라s June 21 2025, issue, 바카라Innings/Outings바카라, on the past, present and future of Cricket in India. It appeared in print as 'Beyond The Boundary.'
