NUCLEAR RIVALS India and Pakistan play each other in the Cricket World Cup semifinals today in what promises to be an electrifying encounter that has gone far beyond being merely an entertaining sporting event between two long-standing adversaries.
Instead, it has morphed into a “cricket summit” after Pakistani prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani accepted an invitation from Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh to witness the match at Chandigarh, 250km north of New Delhi.
The two premiers and their delegations will not only watch the match that has dominated newspaper headlines, 24-hour television news channels and all private conversations over the past week, but also hold talks to try to reduce tension built up after the November 2008 Mumbai terror strikes, in which more than 170 people were killed by 10 Pakistan-based militants.
“It’s war by cricketing means,” political columnist Seema Mustafa said of the impending game that has raised the atmospherics surrounding it to frenzied levels across both countries, where cricket is akin to religion.
Such “cricket diplomacy” has been exploited previously by the neighbours and to some extent has contributed to easing tension.
Former Pakistani president Mohammed Zia ul-Haq travelled to India in 1987 to watch a match at a time when the respective armies had massed along their common frontier in response to India conducting extensive military manoeuvres and succeeded in getting them to withdraw.
Again in 2005, Pakistan’s military ruler, Pervez Musharraf, arrived to watch the sides playing in Delhi and turned the visit into a summit in which he and Mr Singh agreed to work towards demilitarising the disputed frontier dividing the northern Kashmir region between India and Pakistan.
These measures remained in place for several years but failed eventually to reach fruition as they were overtaken by events in Pakistan which led to Gen Musharraf’s ousting and eventual banishment abroad.
Dubbed the “the mother of all cricket matches”, today’s game between the two cricket-mad nations will witness massive security, with Chandigarh being declared a “no-fly zone”, patrolled by helicopters and drones and protected by thousands of soldiers, commandoes, police and armed plainclothesmen.
Anti-aircraft missiles and robotic bomb disposal units too will be deployed for the game, for which $22 tickets were selling on the black market for more than $2,000 in a country where more than 500 million people live on less than $1 a day.
According to media reports, bets of over $4 billion had been placed on the outcome and an additional $18,000 wagered on each of the 600-odd balls to be bowled in the course of the respective innings.
The stakes for national honour are so high that Pakistani interior minister Rehman Malik has warned his country’s team against cheating, referring to match-fixing allegations last year that internationally tarnished Pakistan’s cricketing reputation.