India and Pakistan are bitter neighbors who've fought three wars but share a passion for cricket. Undoubtedly, their World Cup encounter tomorrow will be viewed by ardent fans as a matter of national pride, similar to a military conflict.
During past matches, action on the cricket field has echoed on the frontier, with the two armies firing weapons to celebrate a great shot or lament the loss of a wicket.
``The border suddenly comes alive with shellfire. Winning and losing is marked by corresponding ups and downs in shelling,'' said Purushottam Kumar, a college student in Abdullian, a border village near Jammu, winter capital of India's northern Jammu-Kashmir state.
Pakistan won the last encounter, at the Asia Cup in Bangladesh in June 2000, but India leads in head-to-heads.
Indian and Pakistani soldiers fire at each other almost daily along the Line of Control that divides Kashmir between them. Shelling occurs sporadically -- when there is a flare-up in political rhetoric or a strike by Islamic militants.
When a cricket match is on, ``If soldiers on both sides are unhappy about an umpiring decision or losing a wicket, the firing escalates,'' said Sain Das, a farmer in the frontier village of Karotana. ``This time, too, the situation will be no different.''
In New Delhi, Nalin Bhardwaj, a cricket fan and software engineer, says, ``Losing the cricket match against Pakistan will be like losing a war, a complete loss of face.''
``For some reason the players come out with their best in any match with Pakistan. Maybe it's the animosity, maybe it's because we're brothers,'' said Bhardwaj, referring to the common history of the two nations before their separation
following independence from Britain in 1947.
Pakistani players also were eager for their first encounter with India since mid-2000.
``I can't wait for the game, nor can any member of my team because we'll be locking horns after nearly three years,'' Pakistan's cricket captain, Waqar Younis, said before departing for Africa for the World Cup.
Senior Pakistani cricketers such as Inzamamul Haq, Wasim Akram and Younis have lost previous World Cup matches to India and ``most of the senior players want to break this jinx,'' Younis said.
Cricket is so important to Indians that the government has refused to risk the national team playing, and possibly losing, a match with Pakistan in most tournaments since a mini-war on the Kashmir frontier in mid-1999.
India's Sports Ministry deems it ``against the national interest'' to allow such a cricket match, although field hockey and table tennis matches were approved.
The government may only have allowed the Indian team to play at Centurion tomorrow because a refusal would have given Pakistan an automatic win.
India has refused to let its athletes participate in the South Asian Federation Games in Pakistan this spring, citing security concerns. Officials said on condition of anonymity, however, that India feels participation in a sports event in Pakistan would convey a false sense of normalcy when New Delhi wants to keep pressure on Islamabad to end cross border terrorism.
Pakistan says it opposes terrorism and denies India's charges that it trains, funds and arms the militants who stage bomb and gunfire attacks on civilians, politicians and security forces in India. Pakistan's President General Pervez Musharraf, however, describes the militants in Kashmir as freedom fighters and says his government supports their cause.
Despite political differences and high levels of anxiety, regular folks on both sides of the frontier believe sporting links should not be severed. ``Nothing brings people closer than sports, and what better than cricket?'' said Bhardwaj.ndia.
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