With eyeballs staring down eyeballs and much else staring down much else at the border, social media trolls often find cricket and cricketers a convenient tool to ply their trade and win their own faux-wars. Let it be Pakistanis versus Indians if not Pakistan versus India, they seem to suggest. More often than not, it is yawningly meaningless attrition at work that is robed and dished out with hilariously patriotic trappings. Shakespeare might well have been talking of such interactions when he wrote of “sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
Before we get into the actual narrative, let’s set the record straight with a bit of statistics. India recently played its 500th Test, while Pakistan right now is engaged in its 400th. The two milestones represent enough grounds to see how the two nations have fared on the field of play. Of the 502 Tests India has played, it has won 131 while losing 157 for a win margin of 26 percent and a win-loss ratio (WLR) of 0.83. On its part, Pakistan has played 399 and has won 128 of them while losing 113. This corresponds to 32pc victories and 28pc losses for a WLR of 1.13. The winner is too obvious to name, right?
In terms of One Day Internationals (ODIs), India has won 454 of its 899 matches while losing 399. Win percentage: 50.5; WLR: 1.13. Pakistan’s 866 matches have resulted in 457 victories and 383 losses. Win percentage: 52.7; WLR: 1.2. The winner, again, is too obvious to name. Getting down to the wham-bam version, India’s 46 victories and 29 losses in 78 Twenty20 games mean 59pc victories and a WLR of 1.58. Pakistan has won 58 of its 110 games while losing 43. Win percentage: 58; WLR: 1.48. The loser is too obvious to name. Overall across the formats, India has 631 victories in 1,479 outings, while Pakistan has 649 in 1,375. Simply put, India’s 42.6 percent win margin is some distance short of Pakistan’s 47.2 percent.
In the history of bilateral relations, Pakistan and India have faced each other either in armed conflicts or in sporting contests. It is only natural that the latter has also taken on military overtones
The statistical comparisons and all the vicarious pleasures we can get out of them, sadly, end right here. The fact can’t be denied that in the last decade, India has been doing much better than Pakistan, especially when it comes to bilateral engagements which come around only in international tournaments. The Indian track record is phenomenally more impressive than Pakistan’s. In fact, it is much too obvious to even bother about statistics, and, like all diehard patriots, we should try to avoid such comparisons like the proverbial plague. Warning: It’s a Black Plague, folks. Don’t even touch it.
There is enough in the equation, as we can see, for trolls on both sides of the border to have a field day. The hype generated from time to time by conventional media has only made things worse on social media. It’s billed as the biggest rivalry in the game; even bigger than the Ashes.
The fact is that the two sets of rivalries have starkly different dimensions to be put on the same pedestal. Pakistan-India games have over the years carried an extra bit of excitement and tension not just because they are two very talented sides. After all, they have had their ups and downs, and there have been extended periods when the two outfits found themselves going nowhere in the international arena. Yet whenever they come face to face, their encounters make for intense following and excited copy.
A bit of history will put the argument in context. Pakistan and India have had broken cricketing ties more often than not. The first time Pakistan visited India was back in October 1952, and till February 1961 — a period of eight-and-a-half years — they played just three series before severing cricketing ties. It took them almost 18 years to cool things down, and they played the game once again in October 1978. For the next 11 years, things remained normal, and they played seven series during that time, before another political turmoil kept them waiting for the next decade or so. On resumption, the honeymoon lasted just one series when Pakistan visited India for a three-Test series in 1999. Another five years down the line, the teams faced each other in 2004 and played on a yearly basis till 2007. When the next encounter might come, nobody knows.
The romantic charm of Pakistan-India games has never been based on pure cricketing reasons. It has much more to it than just that. The two countries, as is well known, were once a single entity before Pakistan cut its umbilical cord and popped up on the world map as an independent entity. The resultant bitterness, political history, military tensions, wars, saber-rattling, rabble-rousing and ideological conflicts all played a role in building up the excitement level before any match.
The euphoria was first absorbed by hockey, because even when the two countries were not on talking terms, they still had to face each other off in international competitions, like the World Cup and Olympics. In cricket, there was no such competition in those days — no World Cups, Champions Trophy or even triangular contests — and the whole activity was confined to bilateral engagements.
More often than not in the history of bilateral relations, Pakistan and India during the 1960-1978 period faced each other either in military conflicts or in sporting contests. It was only natural that in due course, the latter variety also took on military overtones. But hockey it was that represented the life-and-death pendulum; not cricket. It was only when Pakistan and India both lost their standing in the hockey world that cricket got a chance to be taken as the main reflector of national sentiments of the two peoples.
One can see that the complexion and nature of stimulation behind Pakistan-India games have been much different from what triggers the Ashes passion, which has purely cricketing connotations. That explains to a large extent why England-Australia matches are still played in front of capacity crowds as against the empty stadiums that marked Pakistan-India encounters during the 2004-07 phase. The clips are readily available for anyone to see how pathetic the turnout was in Test matches, especially in Pakistan. It was worse than the turnout registered by the infamous Ziaul Haq referendum!
The 2004-07 phase, if you might recall, was a period when political tensions had eased off like never before. There was activity on several fronts between the two countries — cultural exchanges, dispute settlement, conflict resolution, rail links, visa facilities and so on. Denied of its exclusive status in the bilateral scheme of things, cricket failed to pull in the crowds. Quite in contrast, even in its worst phase when it was marked by a monotonous Australian supremacy, the Ashes never suffered that ignominy in its 134-year history because positive energy is its essence.
It is a purely cricketing rivalry and therein lies its beauty. In contrast, cricket — or any sport, for that matter — has precious little to do with Pakistan-India rivalry. It’s all jingoism which starts with pompous chest-thumping on both sides and concludes with cries of sour grapes on one side and the odd bravado of ‘we will fix you the next time’.
This attitude can only have negative consequences. There has to be a physical and emotional release of the pent-up energy within the youth and there are few things that can rival the potential of sports to provide that necessary release. When that happens, and if that happens, the youth will have some positivity in attitude, which in turn might result in some chance that society itself might start behaving in a more mature and sensible manner one day.
Under the prevailing circumstances, it’s a long shot. It may well be a utopia, a dream, but it is a dream worth dreaming … for the dreamer, that is. Lesser mortals will have to make do with the reality of what it actually is.
Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, October 16th, 2016
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