{source}
<g:plus href="https://plus.google.com/112292162587333995474" rel="author" width="300" height="69"></g:plus>
{/source}India and Pakistan are set to play a bilateral series after a long gap of five years. The two teams will play three one-dayers and two T20 matches in coming December. As expected the series has started to grab eyeballs from everyone related to cricket. The decision has got severe backing from most of the people from cricketing fraternity, but like always, there are people who are also criticising BCCI’s decision.Both the captains, MS Dhoni and Misbah-ul-Haq have always said that Indo-Pak series will be a good for cricket and they are pretty upbeat about the decision.
The series between these two Asian giants and arch-rivals does make sense. India versus Pakistan has been the battle of all battles. There have been some intense competition between both side and the whole world comes to a standstill when these two cricketing giants take on each other.
The latest of that example was the semi-final match against Pakistan during the 2011 World Cup, when everything stopped and all eyes were set on the cricket field to watch the epic battle. India won the contest and people celebrated as if India won the World Cup. With cricket being so monotonous these days, the fans need competitions like this.
Pakistan’s one-day and Test captain, Misbah-ul Haq in the past has said that both the teams should have a match pretty soon as the fans from both countries are very keen to see the contest. He added that the contest has been missed by the fans and they deserve to see the teams playing again.
In any case stopping cricket matches between the two sides doesn’t make much sense because there hasn’t been problem conducting a match between the two sides; neither there have been any signs of violence whenever the two teams have faced each other. Terrorism is a serious problem and there have to be better ways to tackle it than to stop playing cricket against a particular team.
A simple question that all would like to ask the government is that has terrorism stopped after 2008? Has prohibiting Pakistan players from playing against India in anyway had repercussions on the infiltrators?
Aren’t they crossing the borders at will? Hundreds of lives are lost every month due to militancy within the country. So which sports and teams would the government target to curb insurgency within India?
Playing cricket in no manner can aggravate the terrorist insurgency; however, what it can do is bring people of the two countries closer. There have been instances when some high dignitaries from both the countries travel across borders to watch a cricket match and it does gives an impression that what cricket brings a lot to the table.
Looking from the business point, both nations will benefit if they play a series. Broadcasters have always been ready to pay a huge sum keeping in mind the following these two teams have. Apart from the money it will be a great contest to see some of the world’s finest talent take on each other. India-Pakistan match brings the best out of a player and it is a contest that the whole world is eager to watch.
Gaurav Jha
Indian Sports News Network
