India-Pakistan Cricket Rivalry as Nationalist Spectacle

The much touted India-Pakistan cricket rivalry has, in recent years, evolved into a spectacle, mediated by nationalism, capitalism, and media sensationalism. In addition, the projection of hyper-nationalist sentiments onto this rivalry ensures that more than a mere sporting event, it has come to represent a site of political contestation, ensuring that audiences remain invested in the manufactured political binaries of Hindu and Muslim, adding fuel to the complicated dynamics between India and Pakistan on the historical/geopolitical level.

Cricket in India is no longer just about the game - it has become a site of political contestation, where sportsmanship and political ideology increasingly intersect, reshaping its role in public discourse. Nationalist fervour, as it materializes in abundance under the current political climate, has seeped into the sport, turning every game into a symbolic battle of honour.

The India-Pakistan cricket rivalry, in particular, has turned into a stage for the expression of hyper-nationalist sentiments. A mere sporting event is thus hailed as a metaphor for larger historical tensions between these two nations, exacerbated further by the rhetoric of pride, resilience, and patriotism.

Since the time of the partition, the two countries have been involved in multiple wars, including conflicts over the contested region of Kashmir. Furthermore, India has charged Pakistan with supporting terrorist organisations that carry out strikes inside its borders, a claim that the latter country denies. After the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, cricketing relations between the two countries broke down completely.

The projection of nationalist sentiments, especially in the context of India-Pakistan matches, comes with several repercussions. Firstly, for the players themselves, it becomes difficult to shoulder the responsibility of preserving national pride; performing a crucial role in the match could transform one into a national hero as quickly as a poor performance makes them a villainous figure in the imagination of billions of Indians. This also results in selective targeting of players who hail from the minority community. One such instance took place during the World T20 clash in Dubai in October 2021, when Mohammed Shami, the only Muslim player in India’s playing squad that night, was subjected to vicious Islamophobic trolling after the team’s 10-wicket loss to Pakistan. Despite a sub-par performance from the team, Shami had to bear the brunt of the blame, with a large section of social media users calling into question his ‘loyalty’ towards the country. Following this defeat, several reports of assault also emerged from across the country, alleging that Kashmiri students had been beaten up on accounts of supporting the Pakistani team.

The hyper-nationalist discourse, thus constructed, feeds into the narrative of communal antagonism between Hindus and Muslims in the subcontinent. The onus is placed on Muslim cricketers, on such occasions, to symbolically re-affirm their ‘Indianness’, as if to vindicate their belonging to the nation by ‘defeating’ their Muslim counterparts from the other camp.

Social media toxicity does not help diffuse the rivalry discourse, which is saturated with jingoistic sentiments. Scores of unofficial fan pages are run by users from all over the subcontinent, which only serve to stoke the tension between supporters of the ‘warring’ sides. Someone of the calibre of Virat Kohli gets compared to a Babar Azam, while a Jasprit Bumrah might get pitted against a Shaheen Afridi.

The advertisements specifically curated for India-Pakistan matches seem to be designed to invoke a sense of hyper-nationalism. The last two decades have witnessed an advertisement warfare between the two countries. India deployed the mauka mauka advertisement each time the countries faced off in the World Cup, goading India’s triumph over the years while anticipating Pakistan’s defeat. These advertisements turned demeaning as time passed by. Among these, the advertisement that aired in 2019, when the World Cup match between the so-called rivals overlapped with father’s day, insinuated that the Indian cricket team had become Pakistan’s cricket team’s baap (father). The seemingly harmless advertisement warfare, coupled with growing communal tensions in the country, tend to stoke tensions between supporters of both countries, who project their nationalist sentiments onto the battlefield of the spectacle that is created thus.

The commentators and broadcasters also build a narrative to tap into the spirit of heightened national pride. A heavily charged commentary, harking continuously to how epic the legacy of India v Pakistan matches have been historically, is a characteristic feature of these matches. The pre-match discussions and replays which precede these games are also rife with the rhetoric of national pride. In the build up to the T20 World Cup game in 2022, the Star Sports Network roped in WWE and Hollywood star Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, a celebrity figure who has no connection to the sport of cricket, to promote the event. "When the greatest rivals collide, the world will stand still. This is more than just a cricket match. It is time for India vs Pakistan,” he asserts in the promotional video.

Starting as far back as a decade, all ICC matches between these two teams have been slated to be held on the weekends - to maximise viewership and attendance. This pushes the already-existing excitement to a boiling point, ensuring that people are glued to their screens from the start of the day, in tense anticipation of the spectacle that is deemed to be the ‘greatest rivalry’ in all of sports.

The furore over the so-called rivalry seeps into the everyday life of common citizens who have not signed up for its drastic consequences. Instances of violence against members of the minority community, and Kashmiri students, has become a commonality. One such incident took place after the recent India-Pakistan match in the ICC World Cup 2025, in Malwan, Maharashtra, where a man allegedly overheard a 15-year old Muslim boy praising the Pakistani cricket team and raising slogans in support of Pakistan after Rohit Sharma lost his wicket. The following day, both his parents were detained by the police, and his home, as well as his father’s scrap shop, were razed down by a bulldozer.

With the growing penchant for using the cricket field as a metaphorical battleground on which to assert national supremacy, the hype around India v Pakistan matches will only increase in the near future. Cricket pundits had predicted the death of this rivalry more than a decade back, and it only remains to be seen when the media and broadcasters finally catch on to this realisation.

Aamna is pursuing Psychology Honours and Prantik is pursuing M.A. English at Jamia Millia Islamia

Edited by- Nausheen Ali Nizami