It is one of the fiercest rivalries in sports, with hundreds of millions of people watching every time the two teams play – a viewership that dwarfs that of the Super Bowl. But when India and Pakistan meet on the cricket field, the game is often overshadowed by the icy relations between the two neighbors, who have fought several wars against each other over the past 75 years.
The two teams will meet at the Men’s Cricket World Cup in India on Saturday. The match at the 132,000-capacity Narendra Modi Stadium is sold out. Hotel prices in Ahmedabad, home to the stadium named after India’s fiercely nationalist prime minister, rose five-fold.
“It is the most hyped game in the history of cricket,” said Sheharyar Jaffri, a 30-year-old journalist and cricket enthusiast from the Pakistani port city of Karachi. “We live every ball, every run and every moment.”
But there will be few, if any, Pakistani fans like Mr Jaffri among the large crowd, even though Karachi is closer to the stadium than New Delhi. It is difficult for Pakistanis to get permission to enter India and Pakistan fans were not issued visas for the World Cup. Only a few Pakistani journalists were granted travel permission, which was only given on the eve of the match, so they made every effort to reach Ahmedabad on time.
In the months leading up to the tournament, it was not even clear whether the Pakistan team would even take part.
India had refused to travel to Pakistan for another tournament in late summer and used its outsized influence with cricket’s international governing body – India is the sport’s largest economy – to move the games to neutral venues in Sri Lanka. In return, Pakistan warned that it might withdraw from the World Cup in India, a threat it ultimately dropped.
Cricket relations between India and Pakistan have fluctuated, as have relations between the two countries since Pakistan was carved out of India in the bloody British Partition of 1947. Sometimes there have also been games between India and Pakistan, which have evoked the same passion on both sides of the border. They serve to break the ice when tensions are particularly high and provide an important space for exchange.
When the two nations met on a cricket field for the first time in the early 1950s, the division in the composition of the teams was clearly visible: the Pakistan squad included players who had played for India just a few years earlier.
For many years, interwar relations were so patched up that India and Pakistan even co-hosted the World Cup in 1987 and 1996.
Most of the recent tensions date back to 2008, when Pakistani militants crossed into India on fishing boats and carried out a gruesome terror attack in Mumbai that killed more than 160 people.
Bilateral cricket matches have remained suspended since then, and Pakistani players have been banned from the lucrative Indian Premier League, which features the world’s best players. In the 15 years after the attack, national teams only played against each other as part of larger global events. Saturday’s match will be Pakistan’s first in India in seven years.
India’s Sports Minister Anurag Thakur recently reiterated that despite Pakistan’s participation in this World Cup, New Delhi’s stance on resuming cricket ties will not change “until terrorism is stopped.”
However, in recent years, India’s security calculations have changed significantly. Pakistan, mired in its own political dysfunction and economic crisis, is not seen as a significant threat. New Delhi now sees China as its biggest border problem as the two countries’ armies have been stuck in a standoff high in the Himalayas for three years.
Sporadic outbreaks of violence continue to occur in Kashmir, the restive region disputed between India and Pakistan. Despite the Indian government’s crackdown that has suspended democracy there for four years and reinforced an already heavy military presence, militants who find support and training in Pakistan continue to carry out occasional ambushes.
The increasing political polarization on both sides of the border has not helped the relations between the two countries.
For Mr Modi’s Hindu nationalist base, Pakistan remains an easy populist battleground, even if China now poses the greater threat. Dozens of people in India have ended up in prison for expressing support for the Pakistani team. After four Indian soldiers were killed in an attack in Kashmir last month, many in Mr. Modi’s right-wing support base called for a boycott of the Pakistani team.
The backlash intensified and attracted some opposition politicians after the Pakistan team received a similar welcome to other teams with a traditional dance and other festivities at their hotel in Ahmedabad.
Even in Pakistan, which is in the grip of an Islamist militancy, expressions of support for the other side have led to trials and imprisonment.
Shahid Afridi, a former Pakistani star, was charged with treason after telling an Indian audience during a tour that he “didn’t get that much love even from Pakistan.” A Pakistani tailor in Pakistan’s Punjab state ended up in jail for hoisting an Indian flag, which he allegedly did because he was an avid fan of Indian cricket star Virat Kohli.
However, relationships between players were often cordial. Players from previous generations often spoke of deep bonds of friendship and shared fond memories of hospitality and late-night hotel room pranks when they were able to travel to each other’s countries more frequently.
The same applies if the women’s teams of the two nations played against each other. A selfie of Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur showing her players posing with Pakistan captain Bismah Maroof and Ms Maroof’s young daughter after a match last year went viral.
Gaurav Mittal, a computer scientist from India’s Haryana state who is attending the game in Ahmedabad with five friends, said the rivalry should be confined to the sports field.
“India vs Pakistan is there and we want India to win,” he said. “But humanity is also there.”
Indian authorities deployed thousands of officers in Ahmedabad for security reasons, even though only fans of one of the two heated rivals filled the stadium.
Pakistani fans who had purchased tickets in advance but were unable to obtain visas tried to turn their disappointment into scheduling home performances.
Muhammad Subhanullah, a 36-year-old software developer from Islamabad, said he spent $36 on the tickets.
“Many people had advised me against buying playing cards because India rarely grants visas to Pakistanis. But we were hopeful,” he said. “Unfortunately, India did not want Pakistani fans to attend matches there. Our money and efforts spent on purchasing tickets have gone in vain.”
He said he was considering watching Saturday’s game, in which Pakistan are clear underdogs, at a screening in his neighborhood.
“It’s always fun to see it in front of an audience,” he said.
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