At the height of their cricketing relations in the period 1978 to 1989, India and Pakistan played 29 Tests in both countries. Pakistan came over for three tours while India visited the neighbouring country four times. Besides, India and Pakistan played a number of one day internationals in each country, as also in various competitions around the world, most frequently in Sharjah. Despite an undercurrent of tension, which led to certain unsavoury incidents on the field on the last two tours in 1986-87 (in India) and 1989-90 (in Pakistan), there were no indications that cricketing ties would be abruptly short.

But then growing political differences and military skirmishes in Kashmir could not but have an influence on cricketing relations. Bilateral tours ground to a halt, matches between the two countries at neutral venues grew more infrequent and rhetoric against playing each other became more vociferous. In spite of all this, Pakistan made a long awaited tour to India in early 1999 to play two Tests and the Asian Test Championship match at Kolkata. However the undercurrent of tension remained and what little hopes there might have been of cricketing ties being revived on a firm basis were dashed by events in Kargil.

Since mid-1999 there has really been little realistic chance of the teams meeting anywhere. A crushing blow was the cancellation of the Sahara Cup series between the two countries in 1999 and again last year. Indeed, the last time the two countries met on the cricket field was at Dhaka in the Asia Cup in June 2000. Over the last year, Pakistan has more than once indicated that they have no objection to playing India anywhere but India has stuck to its stand that it cannot play Pakistan as long as the situation in Kashmir remained tense. The Board of Control for Cricket in India has made it clear that it has to go by the government decision on the sensitive matter. Only in December last year, India's scheduled tour of Pakistan was called off and last month India refused to play Pakistan in Sharjah to raise funds for the Gujarat earthquake.

Given the recent background of events, the Indian government's decision to pull out of the Sharjah tri-series was not surprising. Though the government has said that its decision came because the desert venue is allegedly the hotbed of cricket corruption, it is difficult not to link the decision with the fact that Pakistan is among the participating teams.

The Indian government's latest decision has finally tested the patience of Pakistan Cricket Board officials who have maintained that they are willing to play India anywhere and at anytime. In an unusually angry reaction, PCB chairman Tauqir Zia has been quoted as saying that "Pakistan will not play India anywhere in any event in the future and that's it. Enough is enough and we now don't want to be bothered about India anymore. We will not go for the ICC knockout event if India hosts it next year." If any proof was needed that cricketing relations between the two countries had reached a nadir, Zia's reaction underscored it.

The reaction from the BCCI was along predictable lines. BCCI secretary Jaywant Lele said that "the PCB must understand that the decision not to go to Sharjah is the government's and not the BCCI's. "The board has to go by the wishes of the government. If Pakistan does not want to play with us, there is nothing we can do," Lele is quoted to have said.

An interesting point is that the two countries have been meeting on other playing fields. Just last week, India and Pakistan contested the final of a hockey tournament in Dhaka. Again, a Pakistani junior squash team participated in the Asian Championship at Chennai in February and a tennis player from Pakistan, Aisamul Haq, is currently playing the ITF Circuit in India. And the interesting point is that even in cricket, at the junior level, the two teams have been playing each other in tournaments. Only last month, India and Pakistan had played in the Asian Under-17 contest at Dhaka.

The growing fear is that cricket in Asia would be disrupted seriously if India and Pakistan refuse to play each other. There is no denying the fact that Pakistan and India are the major forces at the Asian Cricket Conference. There is a feeling, especially in Pakistan, that the International Cricket Council should take firm action on the issue. But as Malcolm Gray, the chairman of the ICC told a press conference in Chennai last week, if certain events are out of the control of the two boards, there is little that the ICC can do about it. "The ICC cannot decide on foreign policy matters," he said.

Interestingly enough, Zia is also the president of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC). But he himself has doubted the continued existence of the body, given the recent happenings. "When India is doing all these anti-cricket things, the Asian body ceases to exist," he is quoted to have said. He also threatened not to preside over the ACC meeting to be held in Sharjah next month. He was also of the view that the ICC should have "asserted itself more in this regard and acted like football's FIFA, which forbids government involvement in sport."

The ICC in the meantime has set an April 30 deadline for India to spell out its cricket foreign policy so that it can arrange a replacement team to play Pakistan in line with its ten-year Test match programme. Gray had hinted at his press conference that the ICC would make alternative arrangements in such cases.

Recent events then would indicate that the Indian government's stand on the issue has hardened. It seems to have changed its stance from not allowing the Pakistan cricket team to play in India to that of not playing Pakistan at all, anywhere. At this time, it must be admitted that cricketing relations between the two countries are heading for the bleak period between 1961 and 1978 when no tours were exchanged and no matches were played.

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