The black clouds that hovered over Indo-Pak cricket relations seem to have partly blown over and lo and behold, there appears a silver lining in Asia's cricket horizon. The Indian Prime Minister's invitation for Pakistan's Chief Executive to visit New Delhi and discuss various issues has paved the way for the revival of cricket activity between the two Asian giants.

It's not only a matter of delight the two countries will be able to play against each other regularly but also an occasion for Asian countries to celebrate, because the promotion of cricket in Asia rested a great deal on this factor. One hopes that the friendship and goodwill that the game of cricket produces had something to do with this decision. What a wonderful thing it would be if the politicians take their hands off cricket, giving full liberty to the respective Cricket Boards to handle the subject.

The issue was hanging fire for over a year when India declined to participate in the Sahara Cup at Toronto, followed by a refusal to send its cricket team to Pakistan for a scheduled test series and also not participating in the ARY Gold Cup at Sharjah. Apart from the fact that Pakistan suffered a loss of millions of dollars due to cancellation of the Test series, many other complications occurred too, including Pakistan's cricket season going waste.

Tempers flared resulting in exchange of blistering statements from both sides till it came to light that the BCCI was fully prepared to fulfill its commitments but was forbidden by the Government to do so. A number of strange, possibly meaningless statements like, 'there shall be no cricket matches between India and Pakistan', that 'the Indian team will not play at any non-regular cricket venue for at least three years' and 'we won't play India either' etc., appeared in the press. These were awfully detrimental to the progress of the sport in the region and grossly damaging to Indian and Pakistani cricket alike.

They iced over the hopes and aspirations of cricketers on both sides of the great divide, who were not only keen to confront each other but also loved to meet on and off the field. It was, however, great to see the cricket fraternity rising in unison to oppose the isolation of the two great teams. Top present and past stars and many others, criticized such talk as they felt cricket being the most popular sport in both countries, could ill afford to do without playing each other.

A glance at the sequence of events will reveal that perhaps a recent threat by the BCCI that the ban, if continued, could risk India's participation in the World Cup 2003 may have helped bring on a thaw too. Or maybe, everyone realized that it was mutual cooperation and frequent exchange of tours that enabled the three Asian giants India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka to stage World Cups and even win the coveted trophy one each. All the three are quite capable of repeating the performance, so why deprive one or the other of a possible chance?

However, the door for resumption of cricket ties between India and Pakistan is not yet fully open. Presently the Indian team has only been permitted to play against Pakistan in 'multi-lateral tournaments', starting from a Test match in Pakistan in September 2001, as part of the Asian Test Championship. The tournament is designed to bring Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh together and to be fought out between September 2001 and February 2002. This will be followed by India's participation in the Asia Cup also to be staged in Pakistan next year.

Cricket fans in Pakistan are always anxious to see the Indian team in action irrespective of the result. Their hospitality and goodwill towards the visitors is unbounded. Once India has played the two series successfully on Pakistan soil, I do not think anyone will have a valid reason to stop India and Pakistan playing in a 'bilateral' series.

In the Lahore meeting last week, the Asian Cricket Council decided that India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh should sign an agreement that, in case a country declines to fulfill a commitment, it shall be heavily fined to compensate the loss suffered by the other.

With such a condition and in view of the improved political climate, let us hope the silver lining glints quickly and cricketing ties between the two countries are revived, for all the impatient fans to enjoy the battles to come!

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