Message for Bal Thackeray: gotcha! Indians and cricket-lovers all over the world had cause to celebrate last week as the first Test match between India and Pakistan got under way in Madras. For some, the joy comes from the prospect of a dramatic cricketing encounter between traditional rivals, the first since 1987. For others, the real delight is the knowledge that each ball bowled (and there will be thousands in the course of the series of matches) represents a stinging slap on the face of Thackeray.

Schadenfreude is unbecoming of adults--but, I submit, completely justified in this instance. For more than a decade, Thackeray and his Hindu-extremist Shiv Sena party have deprived the subcontinent of cricket's greatest spectacle. Twice in that period Pakistan has canceled cricketing tours of India, frightened by Thackeray's threat to unleash his Hindu hoodlums on the visitors. His "soldiers," as he sometimes calls the thugs at his command, have dug up cricket pitches to prevent play between the countries and have sworn to do bodily harm to players on both sides. Thackeray himself has boasted of his ability to frustrate the desires of a billion cricket-crazy South Asians. Now, it's their turn to gloat at his defeat.

And make no mistake, Thackeray was defeated by India's cricket lovers. Sure, he would like everybody to believe he was persuaded to suspend his opposition to the series by the pleadings of Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, whose Bharatiya Janata Party governs Thackeray's native Maharashtra state in coalition with the Shiv Sena. In reality, both men were frightened (such delicious irony!) into submission by the public displays of outrage by cricket fans across the country. Neither can afford to antagonize these potential voters at the moment. The BJP fared poorly in local elections last November and is widely expected to lose the next general election. The Sena suffered severe reversals in the last general election, and many pundits say it is likely to lose power in Maharashtra in the next round of local polls. In democratic India, even bigots fear the power of the ballot--and the country's cricket enthusiasts represent a gigantic vote bank that straddles all religions and social strata.

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