You can't get two more similar cricketing nations than India and Pakistan; two countries who tend to have a touch of the dramatic and the totally unpredictable to their cricket at all times, yet have a wonderfully dated, laid-back approach to most cricketing matters. But, to put them on a cricket field to play against each other is to ignite a fire in every belly; to kindle aggression even in the most relaxed of men.
Amidst all the overpowering emotions on display in what is really a passion play, there is one that might, to the uninitiated, seem totally out of place. But you only need to see the two teams together when the swords are back in the sheaths and the armour has been removed to realise that friendship is a parficularly fitting theme to this event.
Men who probe into depths of skill and instinct to demolish each other on the field find that laughing together, sharing anecdotes, even discussing the latest Hindi film is just as easy off the field.
There is something else they have in common; the fear of losing. It is a deep, cold feeling, for both teams are aware that to lose to each other is to invite the wrath of passionate, even irrational crowds. They have felt the fury and basked in the adulation and there can be few greater contrasts in reactions to victory and defeat anywhere in the sporting world than from crowds on the sub-continent.
For in stadiums and in houses, in offices and in shops, or ritzy boulevards and in dark lanes, little passion plays erupt when India plays Pakistan in a cricket match. It is not just in Delhi or Lahore or in Karachi or Bombay. Every lane that houses an Indian or a Pakistani anywhere in the world becomes a grandstand. Rising prices are forgotten and the little insecurites that can make life so miserable vanish completely.
The passion can be terrifying, and both teams know that. And underneath the swagger and the confidence there is an emptiness. There is a fear and may be it is that which drives them into giving that little extra that makes watching a sportsman one of the most fascinating of human pursuits.
For that reason, watching India play Pakistan in the Sahara Cup will be an unforgettable expereince. It has to be a wonderful tournament if the basis for its inception seeks to remind people that sport is all about forging new ties, not weakening those that go back several centuries.
The players are aware too that beyond this battle where only one team can win, there is a common path to be traversed where they can only walk hand in hand. They are aware that in Canada, in front of warm-hearted expatriate Indians and Pakistanis, another of cricket's far pavilions is coming alive. It was these two countries that made Sharjah an accepted international cricket venue and they are now prepared to come together to allow Canada, and Toronto, a taste of high profile, intensely combative cricket.
``I am always in favour of playing in new places,'' Mohammad Azharuddin, till recently captain of India, says. ``If somebody hadn't brought the game to India, we would not be playing today. Similarly, whoknows, we might see some very good players emerging from the associate member countries. I have played in Toronto before and I have enjoyed it greatly. But this time, an India vs Pakistan match will make it more special.''
For ten years, India's cricketers had seemed closed to the idea that Paksitan could be beaten. I twas a strange situation where they battled their heart out and yet seemed peculiarly resigned to defeat. The World Cup quarter final, in some ways the most intense one day international played, changed all that and in doing so, allowed India's cricketers a peep into a future that could be different.
The last four matches between the two teams have produced two victories each and the Indian team, so starved over the years, have begun to relish the prospect of victory. There will be that extra zip to their step in Toronto; the nights will not be as bleak and the mornings will bring hope and cheer.
India are aware that Pakistani crowds are less forgiving than their own and that the burden of expectations, and therefore the fury surrounding a poor result, will weigh their neigbours down rather more. After the World Cup, Pakistan do not want to lose but they know it can happen. India will relish that thought. And they will hope to win the psychological battle that lies at the heart of this cricketing contest.
And audiences in Toronto will relish the confronation between Wasim Akram and Sachin Tendulkar. Two of the brightest jewels the game has known will try to outshine each other in a way that could well begin with a glare and end with a handshake, for such is the level of rivalry and respect. They are the best on offer in the game just now, and both teams are aware, India a little more than Pakistan, that the result of that encounter between two titans - the irresistable force of Akram's pace against the immovable object that is Tendulkar at the wicket - could well decide the outcome of the Friendship Cup.
Tendulkar vs Akram? India vs Pakistan? Fire vs Fire? With a warm handshake in between?
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