To the winner goes the...Indian Oil Cup

Few sporting contests rival it for intensity or the fervour that it provokes on both sides of the divide, yet India and Pakistan don't even have a proper trophy to play for. Shoaib Malik and Anil Kumble did unveil something called the Indian Oil Cup on the eve of the first Test, but it's just the next in a long line of baubles that have little intrinsic value. England and Australia play for the Ashes, Australia and India contest the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, while West Indies and Australia had had many enthralling contests for the ownership of the Frank Worrell Trophy.

For India and Pakistan, there's nothing, and that state of affairs is frankly a disgrace. How difficult would be be for the two boards to agree on a design for a permanent trophy and to give it a name? Given that Gavaskar's name is already already, how about the Imran-Kapil Trophy or the Kardar-Mankad Trophy? Why this blatant disregard for tradition? Or is it that each new trophy means a few dollars more squeezed out of some sponsor? Hopefully, sanity will prevail, and long before Kapil and Imran become relics themselves.

Comments

[avinash subramaniam]

once again, you're right. what we need is the imran/kapil trophy. how grand would that be. of course, that might miff a few people like javed miandad and sunny gavaskar. in which case, we'll need the sunny-javed trophy. and that might upset general musharraf and bhutto. in which case we'll have no cricket between the two countries. oh what fun it is to be india-pakistani.