The Asia Cup is just a few days away. Explore why, for the first time, Indian fans are divided on their support for an India-Pakistan match. Fans want Team India to boycott Pakistan games in the Asia Cup, which is being held just a few months after kinetic hostilities between the two neighbors.
Introduction
The India-Pakistan cricket match is considered the most intense rivalry in cricket. The India vs Pakistan Asia Cup game will be no different.
Historically, the England-Australia rivalry in cricket has been the oldest, but the rivalry between the two South Asian neighbors goes beyond the field of play, making it an emotional roller-coaster for fans from both sides. Cricket is no longer just a game.
When there is a match between India and Pakistan, the world watches and the fans become part of the game with every ball bowled. It becomes very difficult for players to suppress their emotions on the field too. Every game played is full of drama, and the viewership is at its all-time high.
Boycott Pakistan Calls from Fans
For the first time, Indian fans are expressing apprehension about having any sporting ties with Pakistan, especially in non-ICC tournaments. Asia Cup is not an ICC event and is conducted by the Asian Cricket Council (ACC)
Fans do not want India vs Pakistan Asia Cup to take place, but now with Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) giving the green signal, the tournament is likely to go ahead.
Pakistan’s role in promoting cross border terrorism against India has been the real reason for the tensions between the two countries, which has now escalated into a full-blown diplomatic nightmare.
From being a highly anticipated sporting clash, the games between the two countries have now become a source of political controversy, increased animosity and emotional tensions between the two countries.
In the past, Indian fans ignored the political undercurrent and wanted to watch the epic clashes between India and Pakistan, but the recent terror attacks on Indian soil by Pakistani terrorists have fans calling for a complete boycott.
India Pakistan political tensions
Since the 1947 partition, conflicts between India and the newborn Islamic state have only widened the incompatibility between the two nations, which in turn has resulted in multiple wars over the years.
India and Pakistan have fought four major wars: the first in 1947–1948, the second in 1965, the third in 1971, and the fourth, known as the Kargil War, in 1999.
After the Kargil War defeat, Pakistan resorted to terrorism that saw
The Mumbai terror attacks (2008),
The Pulwama terror attack (2019)
and many more
These attacks dented even the hardcore Indian cricket fan who now believed that sporting relations between the two neighbors should not continue.Why India should not play Pakistan
This year saw Pakistan sponsored Islamic terrorists massacre Indian citizens in Indian soil that shook the entire nation, and India responded by destroying Terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (POK). This led to further increased hostilities.
While bilateral tournaments have been suspended since the Mumbai Terror attack, Cricket diplomacy saw the two nations playing each other in global and multinational tournaments.
India vs Pakistan cricket match – neutral venues
With Hostilities at an all-time high, both countries are wary of playing against each other in each other’s country.
ICC events have been held in neutral venues after India refused to travel to Pakistan for the ICC Champions Trophy, which India eventually won.
Impact of India Pakistan cricket rivalry on players
With online abuse, threats to players, violent fan reactions, hate speeches and communal targeting have raised security concerns for the safety of the Indian players and Indian fans.
Fans believe it’s safer to avoid the encounter entirely, particularly in this toxic environment.
Asia Cup – Is Money the Reason?
With such a fierce sporting rivalry, there is no doubt, India vs Pakistan cricket match is heavily commercialized.
Over the years , while other countries retain their share of the money earned in the Asia Cup, India and BCCI, the richest cricket body distributes their share of the Asia Cup revenues to promote cricket amongst associate nations.
Asia Cup cannot survive without India
India attracts media outlets, sponsors and this keeps the game commercially viable. Asia Cup will lose its relevance if India do not participate in the tournament. It may result in the scraping of the second biggest tournament in cricket after ICC tournaments.
Summary
While it is just a game, media houses makes India vs Pakistan cricket match sporting encounter into a virtual battlefield weeks before the actual event.
The Indian Cricket team will also feel the heat from their fans. Indian players have faced abuse and trolling which puts a lot of pressure on the individuals’s mental health. For many fans who respect the game and its athletes, the idea of putting players through this ordeal is deeply unsettling.
We at Supersports, believe that if the event is not an ICC event, India always has a choice to Boycott the Pakistan game and continue playing the rest of the matches thus keeping the Asia Cup tournament alive. Playing Pakistan also sends a wrong message internationally. It disrespects the sacrifices of soldiers and terror victims.
Unfortunately, there is still a section of people in India who believe sports should be kept out of politics. They want sporting ties to be continued. They argue that playing cricket with Pakistan may normalize relations that are otherwise strained. This has led to a divide amongst Indian cricket fans.
Indian fans who support a complete Boycott of games against Pakistan in the Asia Cup argue that playing Pakistan as a symbolic gesture has not yielded anything over the years and moreover India can abstain from playing Pakistan as the tournament is not an ICC event.
Even former cricketers and politicians have publicly endorsed against playing with Pakistan considering the current situation.
While Indian fans would want a boycott, many will still tune in to watch the encounter, not to enjoy a sporting event but to purely act as a non-kinetic rebuttal to their neighbors.
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