Why The India Pakistan Rivalry In A Longer Format Must Be Resumed

India and Pakistan, two sub continents which are always involved in a tug of war whether being in the spectrum of political tensions or in the field of the cricketing contest are now set to expand the definitive stance of their never-ending dynamics in a gradual motion. There have already been tons of brouhaha taking the leaps day by day on the matter of approaching the bilateral series from the both ends. Somehow Pakistan government upstaged themselves displaying more alacrity to this matter by considering the hope of resumption of cricketing encounters between these two nations that also on the neutral venue, Sri Lanka but from the other end there is no such drive embraced by Indian government hence BCCI finds themselves dodging every proposal from neighboring end whenever it crops.

Now the question arises why is there that much amount of tentativeness on Indian government’s account to resume the India Pakistan cricket contest on a regular basis? Even many legendary heads of Pakistan Cricket, namely Wasim Akram, Imran Khan have shown their excitement on this above drive on which both countries would get to acquainted with loads of cricketing exposures along with the applause of redeeming themselves in pressure situations and according to them that will also help both the teams to be spruced up in a larger dimension. Hence rather than putting the matter on a hold Indian government should consider how this bilateral series between these two countries is more than just a regular cricketing encounter.

In the Test scenario, this association would be a lucrative one as India and Pakistan have already been reckoned as one of the best arch nemesis in the world so it always grabs the huge amount of viewership even in test matches while they will be brawling with each other. Even this would definitely room for all types of people irrespective of their sports choices because India vs Pakistan has always been the center of all talks so no matter whether anyone is sports fanatic or not, he/she will never want to miss this unmatchable encounters.

Digging into this issue, there is a particular section in India that believes bilateral cricketing ties with Pakistan should remain suspended until there are clear improvements on the terror issue.The reality is that Pakistan is our neighboring country. And especially terrorism emanating from Pakistan is in many ways beyond the control of the civilian dispensation in Islamabad. Pakistan army and ISI have been the ones who back anti-India terror groups. Of course, their policy of using terrorism as a strategic tool has gone backfired which resulted in haunting Pakistanis with several terror attacks killing their civilians. But that is what you get by playing ?good Taliban, bad Taliban?.

Coming back to anti-India terror, New Delhi has two options. It can either take out anti-India terror camps within Pakistan using surgical military strikes and risk an all-out war between two nuclear-armed states, or it can nurture the peace constituency in Pakistan by maintaining people-to-people contacts. Exercising the latter option doesn?t allow India to change its position on bilateral ties. Nor does it signifies that terror emanating from Pakistan will stop. But at least this move will definitely help build mutual trust and create the right atmosphere for the resumption of the bilateral dialogue process. And without the latter, resolution of outstanding issues, including terror, is impossible.

This is where cricket ties can help. Love for the game can bring the people of the two countries together and regenerate the mutual goodwill what we all are eyeing for since ages. I repeat this will not at all solve the terror problem over the night. But neither will be snapping people-to-people ties. We need to acquainted with the fact that there is no magic bullet that will dramatically improve Indo-Pak relations. Positive developments which have been sought will take years to materialize. Hence, both countries should follow to embrace this conflict management mode. This would later come out to the conclusion that even if the political engagement remains frozen, people-to-people engagements will continue to flow in its pace.

In conclusion, India-Pakistan cricket can’t be the solution of bilateral problems. However, it can help the two governments create the right atmosphere for engaging in the imminent future to find the solutions.