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While both nations consider cricket to be their premier sport, and have big fan bases and talent pools, there are also some key differences due to fundamental societal changes that suggest that their differing results may not change anytime soon.
Historically, Pakistan had the edge in head-to-head matches with India, but also in terms of their cricketing results in general, winning more consistently away from home till the turn of the century. This was driven by a few factors: a world class talent pool of fast bowlers as well as batsmen who were both very skilled and street smart.
What does not get much mention is that till about the 2000s, Indian cricket and Indian cricketers just did not have the influence and exposure as their Pakistani counterparts. This was partly a consequence of Pakistan being allied with the Western Bloc led by the US throughout the Cold War years, whereas India was a relatively closed, socialist society. As a result, Pakistani players always seemed to get greater opportunities and experience, whether it was through the many English county cricket contracts, or through frequent invitations to play in World Series cricket series in Australia.
Handling different conditions on and off the field, financial security and more importantly, regular exposure to pressure, made Pakistani cricketers of that era more professional and confident than their Indian counterparts. But as India opened up to the world since the 90s, Indian cricketers also gained financial rewards and exposure to the best coaches and the best players. This in turn has led to Indian cricketers being second to none in confidence, self belief and ability to handle the varied demands of international cricket. It is safe to say that the head-to-head record with Pakistan would have tilted towards India if matches were held regularly over the past two decades.
This transformation has busted a lot of myths that crept in during the long history of India-Pakistan cricket. The worst ones were the jingoistic and frankly xenophobic remarks that Pakistanis are just inherently stronger physically than Indians under the “martial race theory” nonsense propagated by Pakistani leaders like Ayub Khan. Then there was the less reprehensible, but still condescending pronouncements of Imran Khan who is on record saying that Pakistan produced the most talented cricketers in the world.
The obvious challenge would have been to ask “why” and perhaps even question if this wasn’t another sign of the “superiority complex” that Imran always has, but it was instead accepted as pronouncements of “the great Khan from Pakistan” (of dubious standing in many eyes, but that was inconvenient to the myth). One other variant of this myth that is lapped up happily by the media is that Pakistani teams do so well despite their system being so poor, with the implication that they are in fact better than their results suggest.
This argument is an annoying one, in the same way that a good student that worked hard to get high marks in their tests gets reminded by someone who got lower marks that they could have beaten everyone if they had just chosen to work hard. Besides, one cannot lay claim to supposedly great administrators like Abdul-Hafeez Kardar and Shahryar.
Khan while simultaneously complaining about poor administration. In fact, the reality is that the cricketing system is symptomatic of the broader Pakistani society’s values, which brings us to the profound Islamization of the nation. This has affected not only institutions in general, but also public opinion, shaped by decades of propaganda in the nation’s education and the media. Islamization was a useful tool for the military political upper class that has ruled over Pakistan, to prevent the masses from challenging their policies.
However, what it has also done is to cause a decline in the critical thinking abilities of individuals coming through their system, seen plainly when a Pakistani cricketer reaches the international stage. A cricketer succeeds through the combination of great physical attributes and a shrewd brain that is able to make sound decisions in real time. While there may be exceptions to the rule, there are fewer Pakistani cricketers in recent years that demonstrate both the physical and mental skills needed to succeed at the top level.
Overall, it is time we looked under the surface, and stopped treating the decline of Pakistani cricket as an unfortunate accident where the individuals and their institutions are innocent bystanders, and start to recognize that their own societal changes have adversely affected their standing in the cricketing world.
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint.