AS KEVIN O’BRIEN so recently proved in Bangalore with his 113 off 63 balls, great sporting occasions, not least against old enemies, have the power to lift a national mood. And in Mohali in the Punjab yesterday, as the two cricket-mad neighbours India and Pakistan battled it out in the World Cup semi-final on a glorious sunny day, it was the spirits of an entire rapt sub-continent that were raised.
The game, described as “the mother of all cricket matches”, between the two distrustful nuclear-armed neighbours, who have fought three wars since partition, had acquired a political dimension as a rare expression of the possibility of political reconciliation. Intense security concerns were reflected in the mobilisation of 48,000 police and paramilitaries by the Indian authorities and a no-fly zone over Mohali stadium.
“We have not come to fight a war. We have come to play a cricket match,” Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi insisted ahead of the game, but together in the stands were Pakistani prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh. The latter, fighting off a major cabinet corruption scandal, has made the difficult rapprochement with Pakistan a priority. The two discussed reviving a scarcely living peace process and giving impetus to talks due between their foreign ministers in July. And in a propitious sign of goodwill ahead of the match, Islamabad agreed to let Indian investigators travel to Pakistan to probe the 2008 Mumbai attacks in which India has alleged Pakistani intelligence collusion.
The TV audience is put at over a billion across the world’s second and sixth most populated countries. Work, it seemed, was abandoned, companies surrendered to the inevitable, declaring half days, and public prayers were said as crowds gathered to watch from Islamabad to Kolkata. The Karachi stock exchange put a big screen up for traders.
And so it was that Sachin Tendulkar, graced it seemed more than once by the luck of the gods, struck out on what seemed to promise an O’Brien-like innings in his bid to reach the first century of centuries in international cricket. It was not to be although his 85 would be the backbone of the solid Indian victory over the brilliant but inconsistent Pakistan.
It is fitting that the final on Saturday in Mumbai will see this finest of batsmen face up to Sri Lanka’s legendary spinner, Muttiah Muralitharan, who retires after the game. That’s what finals should be all about.