Let the games begin

For most of my generation, India-Pakistan matches meant day-long jousts in white clothes in intense Sharjah heat, at the end of which Pakistan usually won. For nearly two decades, until the match-fixing scandal persuaded the Indian board that the venue had been tarred with the corruption brush, these matches were the staple diet of cricket-lovers in the subcontinent. Former greats mingled with Bollywood stars, and some dubious characters, in the hospitality boxes, and the passion in the cheap seats was no different from that found in Mumbai or Karachi.

But with worsening political ties, the number of matches dwindled. India played in Pakistan only once - three one-day internationals in 1997 - between 1989 and 2004, while Pakistan didn't have a full tour of India between 1987 and '99. The ice started to thaw at Chennai in '99, when the home crowd swallowed the disappointment of a narrow defeat to applaud the Pakistanis as they went on a lap of honour. It was a gesture not easily forgotten, and the Karachi crowd responded in kind when India pulled off a nail-biting five-run win in the first match of the 2004 series.

That match, where India made 349 and still nearly lost thanks to the genius of Inzamam-ul-Haq, was a seminal one in other ways too. Ever since Javed Miandad played a stroke that's as well known as Shane Warne's Ball of the Century, Pakistan had dominated the rivalry. India's consolation came in the marquee event, the World Cup, where it has still to lose to Pakistan after four meetings.

The last clash, at Centurion in 2003, was undoubtedly the most eagerly awaited game of the tournament, and it lived up to the hype. Saeed Anwar put Pakistan in control with a century, but Sachin Tendulkar's breathtaking fusillade against Shoaib Akhtar knocked the stuffing out of Pakistan. Peter Roebuck, privileged enough to watch Viv Richards in his prime, called Tendulkar's 98 perhaps the best one-day innings he had ever seen, and it was certainly the springboard for an Indian magic-carpet ride that ended only when Australian might brought them crashing back to terra firma in the final.

The bilateral series played since cricketing relations were normalised have all been enthralling ones. India won 3-2 in 2004, having trailed 2-1, and it was Pakistan's turn to win away a year later, rebounding from heavy defeats in the opening two games to win four on the trot. Along the way, Inzamam scripted a peerless century at Ahmedabad, and Shahid Afridi gallumphed to a 45-ball hundred at Kanpur.

Less than a year later, they were at it again, but Pakistan appeared listless after clinching the Test series in emphatic style at Karachi. The opening one-dayer in Peshawar was a classic - almost 30,000 people crammed into a stadium meant for 16,000 - that Pakistan won on the Duckworth-Lewis method, but thereafter it was all India. Tendulkar played one of the great innings at Lahore, 95 in conditions where the bowlers were moving the ball every which way, and there were also standout knocks from Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh as India swept to a 4-1 triumph.

They've only played two games since - honours shared at a new stadium in Abu Dhabi - and that might explain the hysteria that surrounded the two encounters at the T20 World Cup. Both teams had come off disastrous World Cup campaigns, and with names like Tendulkar, Inzamam, Dravid, Ganguly and Yousuf missing, the accent was very much on youth and building for the future.

Both games provided exceptional entertainment, an epic tie that necessitated a bowl-out followed by a final that Misbah-ul-Haq nearly snatched from India's grasp, and the sense of anticipation in millions of homes across the region will be palpable as Shoaib Malik and Dhoni emerge for the toss in a few hours' time. For most of the players, it's always been about winning on the field and cultivating friendships off it. Hopefully, that attitude will percolate down to the fans too. This isn't war minus the shooting, wonderful book though that was. It's only a game, albeit a bit more intense than most.