{"id":128717,"date":"2025-09-08T22:22:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T22:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/128717\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T22:22:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T22:22:10","slug":"asia-cup-india-vs-pakistan-match-driven-by-politics-profit-cricket-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/128717\/","title":{"rendered":"Asia Cup: India vs Pakistan match driven by politics, profit | Cricket News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Asia Cup<\/a> cricket tournament starts on Tuesday, but for tournament organisers, sponsors and cricket fans from India and Pakistan, it won\u2019t be before Sunday, when the two regional superpowers face each other, that the event will spring into action.<\/p>\n

Any India vs Pakistan match is considered a marquee event, but the recent conflict<\/a> between the two countries has brought extra heat to the encounter in Dubai.<\/p>\n

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After all, it will be their first meeting since the South Asian archrivals returned from the brink of an all-out war in May<\/a>, when both countries clashed at their shared border before an internationally-brokered ceasefire.<\/p>\n

It has been almost 18 years since India and Pakistan last met in a Test match \u2013 the five-day version of cricket widely regarded as the pinnacle of the sport \u2013 and almost 13 years since either side crossed the border to play a bilateral series.<\/p>\n

But between September 14 and 21, if results go the way the organisers hope for, Pakistan and India could end up playing three times.<\/p>\n

A decades-old political rift between the two nuclear-armed countries is blamed for the frosty sporting ties, but the same differences are set aside when a regional or global cricket event comes around.<\/p>\n

Pakistan was carved out of India in 1947, resulting in a bloody division of the subcontinent by the colonial British. Over the past 78 years, the nations have fought four wars, exchanged countless skirmishes and remained at odds primarily over the disputed Kashmir region that both claim in entirety but administer parts of.<\/p>\n

The Asia Cup is no stranger to political influence and has faced the repercussions of strained ties between the two.<\/p>\n

When India hosted the tournament in 1990-91 amid an uprising in India-administered Kashmir, Pakistan pulled out. The following edition, in 1993, was called off amid heightened tensions between the two sides.<\/p>\n

But despite the strained relations on a political level and the current cricket impasse, which began in 2013, India and Pakistan have regularly faced each other at tournaments for the International Cricket Council (ICC) and for the Asian Cricket Council\u2019s (ACC) Asia Cup.<\/p>\n

\"epa12073856Pakistani, front, and Indian soldiers stand on their respective sides of their shared border during the flag-lowering ceremony in Wagah, Pakistan on May 4, 2025 [File: Rahat Dar\/EPA]\u2018Maximising eyeballs and revenue\u2019<\/p>\n

Why, then, is it impossible for both sides to separate politics from sport for bilateral exchanges if they can agree to share a cricket field potentially three times in two weeks?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all about maximising eyeballs and tournament revenue,\u201d Sami Ul Hasan, former head of the ICC\u2019s media and communication departments, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the ICC plans a global event, organisers do not consider rankings or any other factors. It\u2019s all about making sure India and Pakistan play against each other at least once.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the last two decades, the ICC has changed the format of its tournaments multiple times in order to ensure that happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ICC has, in the past, admitted to fixing tournament draws to ensure Pakistan and India end up in the same group.<\/p>\n

Post-tournament viewership figures confirm the high ratings for India-Pakistan matches.<\/p>\n

According to the ICC, the India vs Pakistan fixture at the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 was one of the most-watched one-day international matches in India.<\/p>\n

It generated over 26 billion minutes of watch time on TV, surpassing the India-Pakistan match from the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023, which had recorded 19.5 billion viewing minutes.<\/p>\n

Tournament organisers, such as the ICC and the ACC, typically sell broadcasting rights and sponsorships to the highest bidders.<\/p>\n

The ICC and ACC distribute the revenue generated at these tournaments amongst their member nations, who stand to benefit from a higher number of India-Pakistan matches as well.<\/p>\n

According to Hasan, the first question posed by broadcasters and sponsors is on India-Pakistan matches.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tricky to pull off multiple India-Pakistan games at global events, but easier to achieve this outcome in smaller tournaments such as the Asia Cup,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven at the Asia Cup, the most they\u2019ve got so far is two matches per tournament. They have been trying for a third [in the final] but it hasn\u2019t materialised yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the tournament\u2019s 16 iterations since its inception in 1984, India and Pakistan have never met in a final.<\/p>\n

\"AFans gather at a viewing party for the ICC Men\u2019s T20 World Cup cricket match between India and Pakistan in New York City, the US, on June 9, 2024 [File: Yuki Iwamura\/AP]\u2018Don\u2019t care about India vs Pakistan\u2019<\/p>\n

Although India versus Pakistan is always the biggest draw at any cricket tournament, fans from other participating nations are not bothered by the lack of attention and respect shown to their teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cI only care about Sri Lanka and not about what happens in an India-Pakistan match as long as Sri Lanka walks away with the cup,\u201d Mohammad Akram, a Sri Lankan, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, it\u2019s about our team and the same goes for fans of Afghanistan, Bangladesh and other countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cSri Lanka has always been sidelined. It has always been about India and Pakistan, but we don\u2019t mind because our team has played the most finals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka are the second most successful team in the Asia Cup and have qualified for a record 13 finals, lifting the trophy six times. Another win in the final would tie them with the reigning champions India.<\/p>\n

\"dasunSri Lanka are the second most successful team at the Asia Cup [File: Eranga Jayawardena\/AP]Bending the rules<\/p>\n

The focus on this rivalry can sometimes lead to unprecedented decision-making and bending of the rules.<\/p>\n

At the last Asia Cup held in Sri Lanka two years ago, the India-Pakistan group-stage game was abandoned due to rain. As both teams reached the next round, and with more rain expected, organisers set aside a reserve day to their Super Four fixture<\/a>, the only match in that round to benefit from the allocation.<\/p>\n

That decision was taken in the middle of the tournament, raising eyebrows and attracting criticism from cricket experts and fans of other participating countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cRules must not be bent for anyone. What happened then did not set a good example for the game,\u201d Hasan said. \u201cPlaying conditions and rules are signed off prior to the tournament and are not tinkered with.<\/p>\n

\u201cChanging them to accommodate certain fixtures gives out a message that everything is about money and commercialisation of that single fixture.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"COLOMBO,India and Pakistan faced each other twice in the Asia Cup 2023, but their first match was abandoned due to bad weather [File: Surjeet Yadav\/Getty Images]India\u2019s sporting ambitions<\/p>\n

Despite the ongoing political rift between India and Pakistan, both sets of cricket boards and governments have given these fixtures a green light.<\/p>\n

In August, India announced a new sports policy whereby its teams and athletes will not be allowed to engage in bilateral sports events with Pakistan, but can face them in international tournaments.<\/p>\n

It also prohibited Indian athletes from travelling to Pakistan and refused to host teams and individuals from Pakistan.<\/p>\n

The move, according to former ICC official Hasan, is to ensure that India\u2019s ambitions<\/a> of bidding for the 2036 Olympics and the 2030 Commonwealth Games are not affected.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor India to say it doesn\u2019t want to play against Pakistan due to political reasons would weaken its case as a potential global sporting hub,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"ahmedabadCricket is the most popular sport in India, the world\u2019s most populous nation [Amit Dave\/Reuters]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Asia Cup cricket tournament starts on Tuesday, but for tournament organisers, sponsors and cricket fans from India…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[20813,1724,64,63,13047,740,1379,1209,69216,12241,44,15299,588,85,1210,29994],"class_list":{"0":"post-128717","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-afghanistan","9":"tag-asia","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-bangladesh","13":"tag-cricket","14":"tag-features","15":"tag-india","16":"tag-india-pakistan-tensions","17":"tag-middle-east","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-pakistan","20":"tag-sport","21":"tag-sports","22":"tag-sri-lanka","23":"tag-united-arab-emirates"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}