It was customary for fans of the losing team in an India-Pakistan match to console themselves with “after all it was only a game”. The winners took the result as endorsement of their politics, way of life, mutton curry and everything else. But such triumphalism was absent after India beat Pakistan by 61 runs in the World T20. The match was a damp squib, and so too was the response. The former was unfortunate, but the latter needs to be encouraged.
The damper the squib, and the less the chest-thumping and chest-beating all around, greater the possibility of a return to sanity on the cricket field.
So we had that rarity: a ‘boring’ India-Pakistan match. And that is good for the game. I have believed in decades of watching cricket that there is no such thing as a boring match — there is always something new, something to learn. Sport can be a great tease, revealing its secrets only in stages.
Boredom in this case is not lack of activity, it is the presence of possibility. Boredom may be defined as “unmet arousal”, which describes the match accurately after all the politics, the hype and the raised media expectations.
But if an uneventful encounter is a prelude to a reduction in the hype and the reclaiming of the spirit in which sport ought to be played, then we cannot complain.
Perhaps next time the captains might even shake hands. It was churlish again this time, with Suryakumar Yadav avoiding eye contact with Salman Agha, and players appearing to suddenly remember urgent appointments after the match. The sight — just outside the boundary ropes — of former players and rivals greeting one another with warm hugs might mean that if you look to the past, you might see the future.
Cyclical dominance
India have dominated Pakistan thoroughly in recent years. But dominance is often cyclical. There are no permanent winners or permanent losers in celebrated rivalries.
In the 1980s, Javed Miandad struck a last-ball six to win the final of a one-day tournament against India in Sharjah. The impact of that single shot was profound. India, World champions then, lost 40 of their next 62 ODIs against Pakistan, winning only 19. It was another decade before India won two matches in a row against Pakistan.
The World T20, dominated so far by politicians, bureaucrats and foreign ministries might, just might, refocus attention on the cricket. And fans might give teams like Italy and Nepal their due credit. Italy won their first World Cup match, led by the now-celebrated Mosca brothers from Sydney. Justin is a physical education teacher while Anthony teaches woodwork in a juvenile detention centre. Their leg-spinner works nights in a pizzeria. The romance of cricket is built on such warm human stories, not on co-opting it in the service of politicians.
That these players appear in a tournament alongside those who earn millions of dollars is what the World Cup is about. T20 has always been the format where the international player connects with his inner child, striking out in palpable enjoyment and communicating that to the audience, perhaps causing viewers to remember the days when they themselves played in backyards and broke windows with a lofted drive.
Big gap
The gap in skill and temperament between the top teams and the rest is vast, but Nepal came within four runs of beating England and South Africa needed two Super Overs to beat Afghanistan. T20 is a great leveller. Authorities must recognise this and insist on the top teams playing the others more regularly, especially at the junior and Under-19 levels.
Inevitably, the focus has moved away from India-Pakistan. They might run into each other again. It might be unsporting to look forward to a boring match again, but as before that word is used here in a restricted sense.
Some of humanity’s most innovative moments began with someone saying, “There must be something we can do.” Boredom is often the mother of invention, and if in that state someone in power says, “Let’s not hold cricket to ransom, but play it the way it ought to be played,” then an unexciting match would be a small price to pay. Boredom can be a quiet benefactor.
Published – February 18, 2026 12:30 am IST
