Vishal
OPINION: What’s the Point of an India vs Pakistan Match After Pahalgam?
By Vishal Mishra
The Asia Cup 2025 is set to deliver a cricketing spectacle, with India and Pakistan possibly locking horns not once, not twice but three times between September 14 and 28. While fans on both sides of the border are gearing up for the thrill, millions of Indians are left asking one uncomfortable question:
INDIA AND PAKISTAN IN SAME GROUP.
– India can potentially play Pakistan 3 times in the 2025 Asia Cup. (Cricbuzz). pic.twitter.com/MMY6RRA3ZA
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) July 26, 2025
What’s the point of playing cricket with a country linked to bloodshed on our own soil?
Just weeks ago, we mourned the loss of innocent lives in Pahalgam, where a brutal terrorist attack shook the nation yet again. As candle marches dimmed and slogans faded into silence, the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) and BCCI quietly greenlit one of the most politically charged fixtures in sports the India vs Pakistan cricket match.
And not just one.
Three potential clashes.
In three weeks.
In a tournament hosted by India, relocated to UAE just for the sake of logistics and optics.
Cricket Over Country?
Social media hasn’t taken this issue lying down.
Hashtags like #BoycottIndVsPak and #NoMatchAfterPahalgam have been trending across platforms, reflecting a wave of public outrage that refuses to be muted.
Thousands of users—ordinary citizens, veterans, and even bereaved families—have voiced one clear and uncomfortable concern:
Are we now prioritizing broadcast ratings, sponsorship contracts, and ticket sales over national security, dignity, and human lives?
In an age where sentiment can be sold and loyalty monetized, the line between sports and soft diplomacy has been dangerously blurred. What once stood as a symbol of national pride has now become a commodity, auctioned off in boardrooms and exploited for engagement metrics.
Cricket between India and Pakistan must be avoided at any cost.#OperationSindoor >>> #AsiaCup2025 pic.twitter.com/nk87lz87sk
— Shashank Shekhar Jha (@shashank_ssj) July 26, 2025
Let’s not sugarcoat this:
This is not just about cricket anymore.
This is about a disturbing double standard, a diplomatic duplicity where sports is used as a smokescreen—a spectacle meant to distract, to entertain, to pacify the masses while innocent citizens bleed in silence.
We are told to “keep politics out of sports.” But what happens when sports becomes a tool of political convenience? When matches are scheduled not despite conflict, but because the conflict helps sell more airtime?
Ask yourself this—not as a cricket fan, but as an Indian citizen:
Would we still be so eager to cheer for this match
if the victims in Pahalgam were your own family?
Your mother, your brother, your child?
Would you still call it “just a game” if you had buried someone you loved just weeks before?
We cannot keep toggling between mourning and madness, between hashtags of grief and hashtags of glee, just because a cricket match is in the mix.
It’s time we ask—what matters more: national honour or national pastime?
“Neutral Venue” – Convenient Compromise?
Yes, the matches will be played in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. But does changing the venue absolve the emotional and ethical responsibility of participating?
It’s still India vs Pakistan,
still prime time entertainment,
still sponsored by Indian money an estimated USD 170 million in broadcast rights alone.
Let’s not forget that India refused to travel to Pakistan in 2023 due to security concerns. Yet, in 2025, we’re rolling out the red carpet, just with sand beneath our feet instead of soil.
Silence from the Top
The Sports Ministry has clarified its stance, stating that multilateral tournaments like the Asia Cup do not fall under the purview of bilateral engagement restrictions. Technically, this allows India and Pakistan to face each other on neutral grounds. But in doing so, are we simply hiding behind technicalities while avoiding the larger moral question?
Where is the leadership that should speak on behalf of the citizens, not sponsors?
Where is the accountability from those who claim to represent national interests?
At a time when the nation is still grieving the heinous terror attack in Pahalgam, this deafening silence from the government, BCCI, and broadcasters is both telling and disturbing. Not a single statement acknowledging public outrage. Not a word about the emotional contradiction of playing Pakistan while our own people were targeted by Pakistan-backed elements.
Instead, we are expected to tune in, cheer, and clap as if nothing happened.
This silence speaks louder than words.
It tells us that public outrage fades, but advertising revenue does not.
That TRPs and ticket sales matter more than tears.
That while the wounds of terror are still fresh, the focus has shifted to brand partnerships, sponsorship activations, and marketing campaigns.
It’s a stark reminder that in the world of modern sports, sentiment is disposable, but commerce is sacred.
And in this sacred commerce, even the blood of innocents has a price tag hidden behind the glitter of stadium lights and the distraction of cricket fever.
In a country that prides itself on national pride and patriotic fervor, is this the kind of selective nationalism we’re now embracing?
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A Dangerous Precedent
If we choose to normalize this playing cricket with a nation repeatedly linked to cross-border terror what’s next?
Will we soon see India and Pakistan engaging in a full-fledged bilateral series, complete with celebratory press conferences and merchandise deals? Will we witness players exchanging jerseys, sharing smiles, and giving friendly interviews while soldiers stand guard at the Line of Control, uncertain if the next moment will bring a bullet or a bomb?
Will there be another hybrid tournament, another calendar reshuffle, another press release all while we light pyres for those killed in cowardly attacks across Kashmir, Poonch, or Pahalgam?
What precedent are we setting for future generations?
We are teaching them that commerce trumps conscience, that terror can be tolerated as long as the lights are bright, the match is entertaining, and the revenue flows uninterrupted.
We are slowly conditioning our collective psyche to forget and forgive too easily not out of compassion, but out of convenience.
This is not just a cricket match.
It’s not “just a game.”
It’s a strategic message, intentional or not that we, as a nation, are willing to overlook terrorism for the sake of entertainment.
That the lives of martyrs, the pain of grieving families, the trauma of survivors can all be put on silent mode when the national anthem plays in a cricket stadium.
And once we cross this line, how many more are we ready to cross?
#AsiaCup2025
We are playing with them pic.twitter.com/lAJv8b1tAh— Dr Gill (@ikpsgill1) July 26, 2025
Final Thoughts
To the fans eagerly celebrating this much-hyped “trilogy” of matches between India and Pakistan—
Yes, cricket is a unifier.
Yes, it is often described as a religion in India—a game that transcends regions, languages, and castes, bringing millions together in celebration.
But even religion, at its purest, is rooted in sacrifice, morality, and memory.
It honors those who came before us, those who gave up everything so we could live freely and safely.
And that includes the men, women, and children who have lost their lives—not to natural disasters or accidents—but to terrorism, to deliberate violence, and to cowardly attacks planned across our borders.
Even the grandest sporting event must pause before the grave.
Even the loudest cheer must go silent for the dead.
We cannot call ourselves patriots in the stadium while ignoring the funerals in Pahalgam.
We cannot wave the tricolor in joy while it’s being lowered to half-mast elsewhere in mourning.
We cannot pretend that this is “just cricket” when the wounds of terror are still fresh in our national memory.
We cannot celebrate cricket while ignoring the corpses.
We cannot cheer sixes while forgetting the screams.
We cannot play on, as if Pahalgam never happened. Because it did. And it will again—if we keep normalizing it with applause.
The price of every boundary, every wicket, every sponsorship deal—
Is paid in silence.
And silence, sometimes, is complicity.
Vishal Mishra
Independent voice. Concerned citizen. Cricketer at heart, but Indian first.
