As India prepares to face Pakistan in the Asia Cup 2025 match at Dubai International Cricket Stadium today, September 14, controversy surrounds the fixture as many oppose India playing against Pakistan due to terrorism concerns. A lot more than two points will be at stake as the match will be played under the cloud of lingering hostility after their intense recent conflict, when India launched strikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan after 26 tourists were killed in a dastardly attack in Pahalgam.
Calls for boycotting cricketing ties with Pakistan have grown louder since the attack in Kashmir, after which India launched ‘Operation Sindoor’. It is learnt that, as per a new policy announced by the government recently, India will not engage in any bilateral sporting contests with Pakistan but will continue to face the neighbours in multilateral tournaments such as the ongoing Asia Cup cricket tournament or events organised by the ICC.
Whenever India and Pakistan play, emotions run high and a loss is not taken well by fans on either side of the border. In past decades, players’ homes in Pakistan have been torched, their family members threatened, and effigy-burning protests carried out on the streets. The current political climate between India and Pakistan is worse than it has been in several decades. People in India feel that it is not right to play this match while the overall relationship between both countries is so strained. Many consider it an insult to those who lost their loved ones in the terror attack at Pahalgam.
Fans in India may see the fixture as a money-making avenue for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), whom they blame for trying to cash in on the profits generated by these high-profile clashes. The question being asked is: if the Indian government has stopped issuing visas to Pakistanis, if diplomatic ties are suspended, and if the Indus Water Treaty has been kept in abeyance, then why have the cricketers been asked to play this match in the aftermath of a war? That is the big question.
