It’s getting to the point where for those of us who don’t have a dog in this fight, the most rational response is to use the side eye.
It should be noted that this is a story about India and Pakistan written by a Sri Lankan. Our team did not qualify for the Champions Trophy for reasons I don’t want to talk about right now. But you remember our place, right? A small island on the edge of the continent, a lot of protagonist energy in the sense that, despite the population share of any of the major South Asian countries (our entire country is slightly more populous than Karachi and much less populous than Kerala), we do global news quite often. Either we are fighting a war, or we are mired in an economic crisis, or we are taking to the streets to participate in one of our mass protests, or we are overthrowing one of our heads of state.
The TL;DR, if you don’t want to click on any of these links, is that the minority communities on the island understandably feel so oppressed by our majoritarian politics that they support other teams in the region, partly as an act of protest.
If you’re the kind of person who doesn’t like reading about politics on a cricket website, you’ll enjoy this, but relax. This concludes the political part of the article. Easier things are about to begin. But for now, the fact is that Sri Lankans are interested in the India-Pakistan games.
Or at least we used to be. Because lately they don’t hit like they used to.
There was a time, not long ago, when watching an India vs Pakistan match was like watching a science fiction vs fantasy battle. Pakistan is clearly an element of fantasy here. There is a section of Pakistan cricket that feels trapped in a magical past, especially 1992. The story of the ODI World Cup in Pakistan is one of the greatest cricket stories ever. Certainly not as good as the 1996 Sri Lanka World Cup story, but you guys had the “cornered tigers” talk, the “lose all the games until you have to win all the games” narrative, and frankly, big props are something serious dramatic fuss.
Virat Kohli has ten ODI hundreds against Sri Lanka. Ten! (Can you ask him to stop?)
(In this version Star wars plot, the Ewoks cannot claim the Champions Trophy, and Darth Vader and the Emperor rule the galaxy forever.)
While India is all systems go, space-age engineering and rapid-fire IPL missiles, Pakistan feels like a secret magic for us. They are masters of the reverse swing, considered one of the darker arts of cricket – until (cough) traditional The powers that be in cricket figured out how to do it and at that point it became a common art. Dusra also has its origins in Saqlain Mushtaq and Pakistan.
Sri Lanka too has borrowed from these traditions as South Asia at its best is a melting pot of great ideas. Muthiah Muralidaran, Sri Lanka’s greatest bowler, still seems like pure fantasy all these years later. Kumar Sangakkara, our greatest batter, was an incredible science fiction writer.
The problem for us neutrals (Sri Lankans are more chaotic neutrals than true neutrals, in case anyone was wondering) is that science fiction has dominated the scene lately. Going into this game, there is no doubt that India are poised, ready and strong. Pakistan is weaker and licking its wounds after the first tournament.
As with Lord of the Rings film franchises, you would like to see Pakistan again as it was a few decades ago, and not whatever mixed stories they are spinning now.
Andrew Fidel Fernando is a senior writer at ESPNcricinfo. @adelf