By Aravind Adiga

Posted Monday, June 27, 2005; 20:00 HKT
As well as sharing qualities common to the region's other great sports meets—virtuoso displays of talent, nail-biting finishes, mass outpourings of national pride—a cricket match between India and Pakistan has the added plus of making a nuclear war in Asia significantly less likely. For decades, the two cricket-crazy neighbors have used the sport as a safety valve with which to defuse tensions over Kashmir (India has the military edge; the Pakistanis tend to be stronger on the pitch). A terrorist attack on India's Parliament in December 2001 raised tensions and temporarily froze cricketing ties between the two nations—but with the recent thaw in relations, matches have resumed. Earlier this year, the Pakistani cricket team crossed the border with a large band of supporters, many of whom were seeing India for the first time. For the final game of the series, in New Delhi, a special Pakistani visitor flew in: President Pervez Musharraf, who took in the morning session sitting next to India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Later in the day, the two leaders held talks. Pakistan won the match, but it was a good day for India, too. After all, the prospects of a nuclear conflict looked more distant than ever.

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