The India-Pakistan cricket match is one of the most closely watched sporting events in the world. This is due to the bitter diplomatic relations and conflicts that arose during the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, the Indo-Pakistani wars and the Kashmir conflict. Pakistan became a member of the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1948 and became a full member in July 1952. The two teams played for the first time in 1952 when Pakistan toured India.
Although they lost the Test match in Delhi, they won the 2nd Test in Lucknow. This defeat caused the Indian players to anger their fans. India clinched the Test series after winning the third Test in Bombay, but the intense pressure took its toll on both teams. When India toured Pakistan in 1955, thousands of Indian fans were given visas to travel to Lahore, Pakistan to watch the Test match, but both the 1955 series and Pakistan’s tour of India in 1961 ended in draws, with neither team winning a single Test match. Complaints about the fairness of the referees continued.
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Two major wars in 1965 and 1971 led to a cessation of hostilities between the two sides. In the post-1971 period, politics became a direct factor in the conduct of cricket events. India has severed cricket ties with Pakistan several times following terrorist attacks or other hostilities. In 1978, when India toured Pakistan, cricket between the two countries resumed briefly. In 1979, Pakistan President Zia-ul-Haq was invited to witness the India-Pakistan Test match in the Indian city of Jaipur.
India’s tour of Pakistan was canceled midway through the series due to the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984. For most of the 1990s, India and Pakistan played each other only at neutral stadiums in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates and Toronto, Canada, where large foreign audiences regularly watched matches between the two sides. In the 1990s the series between the teams in Canada was officially known as the “Friendship Cup”. Sharjah, despite being a neutral venue, was considered the “back yard of Pakistan” given its proximity and the support it generated for the team.
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The emergence of international tournaments such as the Cricket World Cup, ICC T20 World Cup, ICC Champions Trophy, Australia-Asia Cup and Asia Cup, although the matches between the two sides are short, are more regular. Following Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s historic visit to Pakistan in 2003, the Pakistan team decided to tour India to play Test matches and One Day Internationals after a gap of almost 15 years. Subsequent exchange tours were conducted in 2005 and 2006.
After the 2008 Mumbai attacks, India’s planned tour of Pakistan in 2009 and all future engagements in Pakistan were shelved. Since then India has refused to play any kind of series against Pakistan. The 2009 attack on the Sri Lankan national cricket team in Lahore led to the suspension of international tours to Pakistan. Pakistan was stripped of co-hosting the 2011 Cricket World Cup. In the 2011 World Cup, India and Pakistan qualified for the first semi-final of the tournament, and the Indian government invited the Pakistanis. Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani visited the match along with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
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Bilateral ties finally resumed in December 2012 when the BCCI invited the Pakistan national team to tour India for three ODIs and two T20Is. In June 2014, the Pakistan Cricket Board announced an agreement to play six bilateral series over eight years. After lengthy negotiations, offers and counter-offers on venues and the scheduling of the first series of the series in December 2015, an agreement could not be reached. In May 2017, the BCCI reckoned it would need approval from the Indian government before the bilateral series could take place. Although the two board members met in Dubai to discuss the matter, no further progress was made.
Tickets for matches where the two teams play each other in international competitions are in high demand, with applications for more than 800,000 tickets between the two sides for the 2019 Cricket World Cup encounter. The telecast of the match was watched by 273 million viewers. In October 2021, the teams played their 200th international match against each other during the 2021 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. Pakistan won the match by ten wickets, the first time in 13 attempts that Pakistan had beaten India in a Cricket World Cup or T20 World Cup match. Following this, now the Indian team will face Pakistan on 28 August 2022. This match has created a lot of controversy among cricket fans.
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