Another year, another India Pakistan one day international series. Has the idea of an Indo-Pak encounter lost its aura? No longer does the blood boil and the stomach churn. Although a month of quality cricket is expected, there is no longer the air of expectation, war is no longer in the air. Is this an impact of the ever increasing number of Indo-Pak contests or is this the effect of the historic Peace Process? The Friendship series as the India-Pakistan series was once called has been reduced to just that - a friendly event.

Although the media would like to play up the concept of “badla” and introduce some element of intrigue into the series, personally ,the India-Australia series is the one I am looking forward to. The result of the India - Pakistan series will be meaningless - forgotten. A year from now people will ask, what was the scoreline? Was it 2-3 or 1-4. And why will it matter. By next year there will be yet another series and a victory here or a loss there can be buried easily. But the India-Australia series down under is happening after 4 long years and the next one might not happen for a while. And an India -Australia series wins hands down in terms of the sheer quality of cricket expected. It is the challenge of beating the invincibles that excites one and all. How many people would agree that an India-Australia series is far more exciting today than an India- Pakistan series?

Test Series

While the India-Pakistan magic may not longer work in the shorter version, personally I am looking forward to the Test series which will follow the meaningless One-dayers. An interesting fact to note is that this will be the first home test series for India since March 2006 against England.The test series will be the platform for the new Indian Test Captain to set himself up and to fine tune his team for the upcoming tour of Australia. The venues for the test matches are Delhi, Kolkata and Bangalore. All three venues have seen some famous India-Pakistan Test encounters. The most memorable being Kumble’s 10 wicket haul at the Kotla. Kumble must be raring to run in at the Kotla. The Eden Gardens which played host to the controversial Asian Test championship game in 1999 is the venue for the second test and Bangalore where Pakistan have usually outperformed India  is the venue for the third test. The choice of venues, the lack of quality test cricket at home in recent years and the build up to the India-Australia series are all the right ingredients that provide the background for an interesting test series.

India and Pakistan always seem to perform as well as the other when they play each other.
They always match up as equals - It does not matter where they are ranked in the ICC Test Cricket ratings and who looks stronger - man for man, on paper. Once the players walk out to the centre in Delhi the series will have begun. 0-0, and all to play for. While the war-like nature of India-Pakistan Cricket may no longer persist - war or no war, emergency or autocracy - the test matches promise to be fascinating games of cricket - nothing more, nothing less.