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The problem is that the terrorists there have always been proven to be actively in league with the Pak army and this unholy alliance controls and directs effectively the Government policy and political strategy. An elected government technically represents the people and therefore the people of Pakistan need not necessarily think about India any differently than their government, and this means that the Indian fury cannot get limited only against the terrorists. It encompasses the whole of Pakistan as an enemy state and normal relations are never maintained between enemy countries. Normal relations definitely have to include sports which includes cricket too.
Therefore, although people to people relations or thoughts may not emit enmity of the highest order, as two neighboring but enemy states India and Pakistan cannot maintain cricket relations either. In fact, it has been India's strategy to stop all bilateral cricket matches since 2008 after the horrific Mumbai terror attack. The situation becomes complex in regard to international tournaments where there is no choice to choose your rivals--either you play per the schedule or don't participate at all. As a major cricketing nation of the world India cannot possibly stay away from the ICC tournaments: first, the competitive international ranking and position issues; the ardent fans of both the countries who constantly rue the fact that there haven't been many matches between the celebrated archrivals; and last but the most crucial is the big money involved in these sought-after encounters that the two cricket boards and the ICC too cannot afford to miss out on.
A solution to the issue was found through the concept of neutral venues where the two rivals can meet and the millions of fans can also enjoy on their TVs/Computers/mobiles and the cricket boards can rake in the dough. However, in the ICC World Cups the host nations, whoever that may be, must have all the teams playing there; and in fact, Pakistan came to India in 2023 and played all their matches including against India while India never went to Pakistan since 2008 which is due more to the security concerns there than the enmity between the two countries. Thanks to the same concerns the ICC had to shift Ind-Pak matches in the Champions Trophy-2025 to neutral venues even as the host nation Pakistan fretted and fumed. Our point here is that there'd always been a way out to hold the encounters between the archrivals.
The Pahalgam carnage changed all that. Fury gave rise to a sense of poignant and almost a jingoistic patriotism that shows zero tolerance to any sort of relations with Pakistan including cricket, seemingly riding over their own cricket fandom. The patriotism got reflected in a cricket league recently where the Indian cricketers refused to play with the Pak players.
And yet, the cash-powered Indian cricket board, BCCI, decided to go ahead with the India-Pakistan matches in the upcoming Asia Cup-2025 with the host nation India judiciously selecting UAE for the tournament. Accordingly, the media has taken up their usual practice of hyping up the matches with spicy promos and all that. In recent years we often came across ads/headlines describing Ind-Pak matches as 'War' or even cricket 'World War'. But at this delicate juncture the Indian fans are not at all reacting to this kindly or with spirit.
Opposition against the archrivals' matches has been rising to a crescendo among the public in India: the BCCI is being condemned and shamed; divisions being created across cricketers & veterans; and the Indian fans threatening to boycott the whole tournament.
It is often felt that politics and sports should never be mixed up. However, as we argued earlier, the feelings in India are far from being any part of their country's politics. It's the hurt and the patriotic fervor that's been driving them to vehemently shun what they like most under tolerably normal circumstances. So, we feel the sentiments of the people should be respected, and the BCCI must act accordingly, looking away from the 'big-money' angle for once or the Indian Government must come into the act forcing the autonomous board to comply. We also hope Pakistan sees sense in moving away from terror permanently, thus paving the way for normal relations in the near future.
And in case, the Asia Cup 2025 does unfold as scheduled, it'd be immensely interesting to observe if the patriotic fans do finally manage to go ahead with their boycott threat or fall prey to the high-voltage 'war' of cricket. As if the Trump Tariff madness were not enough!
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