We often here about sporting rivalry between certain countries in various sports with New Zealand and South Africa labelled the greatest of rugby rivals. This may be the case with rugby yet this fails in comparison when you speak about rivalry and hatred when you compare India and Pakistan with cricket.
Today India host Pakistan in the T20 World Cup not in India, but in Sri Lanka as the Indian team agreed to change the venue. The game is always a highlight for cricket fans around the world and not just for these two countries involved as this is political and has other underlying reasons for the hatred.
The history of the hatred between the two teams dates back to 1947 where 20 million people were displaced due to the splitting of territories between the two countries. Kashmir is the center piece if you would like and the map above shows you how it was split and shared between the two countries. Conflict along the border lines happens regularly and can recall reading just last year of tensions on the border.
The other underlying reasons for the rivalry is religion and why it may not seem obvious Pepsi sponsors Pakistan and Coca Cola sponsors India. Coca Cola was banned by Egypt for sale in their country back in 1966 due to Coca Cola having business in Israel. When Coca Cola was a sponsor of the Indian team it was quite funny to see when they played Pakistan that Pepsi was sponsoring the Pakistan team and it was like these companies chose their sides of the rivalry.
No cricket was played between these two countries between 1962 and 1977 due to having two major wars in 1965 and 1971. The 1999 Kargil war is only 26 years ago and very recently they were fighting with reports of a downed Indian fighter jet. The fighting between these two countries is always going to be there as this is not going to end.
When there is conflict on the borders or tensions are high which they are regularly then the teams do not tour each others country and rather play on neutral territory which is often in Dubai. Today they play in Sri Lanka so they are still using a neutral territory and it will be interesting to see if these teams can make it through to the final to see where this will be played if that indeed happens.
The game being played today both captains refused to shake hands at the tossing of the coin and kinds of sets the match up. This is all political and I am not sure what type of backlash would happen if the captains would shake hands because I am sure the home fans would not be happy. The players are under the microscope like in no other sport when these two countries play each other and why this is the fiercest rivalry in any sport around the world as this goes much deeper than sport and is seen as another battle between the two countries.
There is nothing wrong with having passion in sport because that is an ingredient any sportsman or woman needs to have to gain success so having a rivalry such as this is a proper spectacle. This is why cricket fans around the world take note and will watch this particular match with interest as we know how much this means to India and Pakistan with the result being everything.