India and Pakistan will square off on Sunday in a heaving colosseum of 100,000 people which sold out in minutes.
“I tell you what, if the capacity was 150,000, there would have been 150,000 there,” India legend Ravi Shastri told foxsports.com.au last week.
In reality, even 150,000 might be a conservative estimate, such is the great significance of the rivalry, and the rarity in which new editions are held.
In 2019, about 800,000 fans applied to attend the World Cup showdown between India and Pakistan at the 26,000-seater Old Trafford.
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It’s not a stretch to say India vs Pakistan is sport’s greatest rivalry, given the geopolitics involved between the two warring nations, who have a combined population of nearly two billion — many of which are cricket mad.
The world’s greatest rivalries are always about more than sport, and the long-lasting feud between India and Pakistan is the best proof of that.
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It all stems from bitter diplomatic relationships, and a bloody conflict that dates as far back as 1947 when British India was cruelly partitioned into two independent nations; India and Pakistan.
The partition was created along religious lines with Muslim and non-Muslim majorities divided, triggering riots, a massive refugee crisis, and huge casualties estimated between 200,000 and two million people.
Muslims headed towards Pakistan and Hindus and Sikhs towards India, but Himalayan territory Kashmir remained a disputed region — as it still is today.
India and Pakistan have waged war against each other over Kashmir three times, most notably in 1947 and 1965, although there have been many more armed conflicts.
Most recently, there was gunfire and shelling between India and Pakistan forces between late 2020 and early 2021.
Tensions have run high when India and Pakistan have done battle in the cricket arena as well, with one commentator calling the clashes “war minus shooting”
As such, the two nations have been stopped from playing each other at home, and only face-off at World Cups or the Asia Cup.
Even then, India has already determined that it will not travel to Pakistan for next year’s Asia Cup, thus putting the entire tournament in jeopardy.
In response, Pakistan has threatened to go tit for tat by pulling out of the ODI World Cup, which India is due to host in the same year.
Indian cricket board secretary Jay Shah — who is also president of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) — said Tuesday that India “can’t” send a team to Pakistan, adding the tournament would be moved to a neutral venue.
His announcement caught Pakistan by surprise, with officials warning it could “split” the international cricket community.
Despite being considered one of sport’s greatest rivalries, India and Pakistan have not met on home soil in any version of the game since 2012.
It is now within this renewed unrest between the two nations that they will face-off in their T20 World Cup opening fixture at the MCG on Sunday (7pm).
Shastri said that whenever India plays Pakistan, the demand for tickets is always so high that he cannot escape the optimistic demands of others.
“My biggest worry — I was a player, I was a coach and now I come in as a broadcaster — I will land in Australia and the day after my phone will start buzzing for tickets,” Shastri said.
“‘Can I have tickets please?’ And I tell them, ‘I am not a ticket printer. I am no longer a coach, I am no longer a player, I am not a ticket printer. Sorry, mate. I can’t help you there’.”
Despite the bitterness of the rivalry, Shastri said that there is a respect between today’s players.
“There’s great camaraderie there,” he said. “There’s great mutual respect.
“The pressure is massive, but among the two teams there’s great mutual respect.”
India wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant said he gets goosebumps playing India’s arch rivals, calling it “a different kind of feeling” to any other team.
“It’s always special playing against Pakistan because there is a special hype around that match,” Pant told the official World Cup website Friday. “There are so much emotions involved, not only for us, but the fans and everyone.
“It’s a different kind of feeling, a different kind of ambience when you go on to the field and when you take on the field, you see people cheering here and there.
“It’s a different atmosphere and when we were singing our national anthem, I actually get goosebumps.”
In terms of the cricket, India has a big score to settle on Sunday having been humiliated by Pakistan in a 10-wicket loss at the start of last year’s T20 World Cup.
India also lost to Pakistan with one ball remaining when they met at last month’s Asia Cup in the UAE.
The encounter is under great threat from the weather gods, however, with the Bureau of Meteorology forecasting a 70 per cent chance of two to five millimetres of rain in Melbourne, most likely in the late afternoon and evening.
— With AFP
