Is India v Pakistan still cricket’s greatest rivalry?

Roaring crowds, faces painted blue and green, flags waving like battle standards.

This is the opening of The Greatest Rivalry: India v Pakistan, a new Netflix documentary on one of cricket’s most storied contests.

India’s Virender Sehwag sets the tone: “This is a contest bigger than one between the bat and ball”. Cut to dramatic footage of some of the matches, the Wagah border, partition refugees. A nation split into two, but forever bound by cricket.

Pakistan’s Waqar Younis doesn’t hesitate: “I put this rivalry right at the top. There’s no match like India v Pakistan.” India’s R Ashwin agrees: “I think this is bigger than the Ashes.” Ramiz Raja says it’s “the political garnish that makes this rivalry world-class”.

Despite wars, border standoffs and terror attacks, the India-Pakistan cricket rivalry has endured, driven by history and national pride. Even when politics halts the bilateral series, International Cricket Council (ICC) tournaments keep the fire alive, turning every match into a high-stakes spectacle.

Is this still the premier clash in cricket, or just one of its most dramatic? Has it lost its competitive edge, running more on history than intensity?

Consider this. From an eight-wicket thrashing in 2018 to a 228-run demolition in 2023, India has dominated, winning six of the last eight ODIs. Pakistan’s last victory? The 2017 Champions Trophy final – a fading memory in an increasingly one-sided rivalry.

What rivalry, asked Dawn – a leading Pakistani newspaper – pointedly after the latest debacle. A cricket war that’s now just a big yawn, headlined India Today magazine.

According to Dawn’s Zohaib Ahmed Majeed, the defeat would be less painful to accept if Pakistan were at least fighting back.

The conflict has only been kept alive by Majeed, who believes that the conflict is due to the conflict’s volatile politics between the two neighbors.

The cricketers, especially those from our side, are undoubtedly unable to put on a show that is deserving of its billing, he wrote, “In a way we must thank the politicians of these two nations for keeping this rivalry alive.”

India Today was no less acerbic. Pakistan cricket has quickly veered into pity territory as a result of its history of one-sided defeats suffered by India in recent years. And if the trend is reversed, cricket fans’ enthusiasm for Pakistan’s potential rivalry with India could soon become a jumble, according to Sandipan Sharma.

To be true, Pakistan’s cricketing woes keep mounting. They have missed the final four in the last three ODI World Cups, crashed out in the T20 World Cup group stage and now, as hosts of the Champions Trophy, they’ve hit rock-bottom.

Since the 2009 attack on Sri Lanka’s team bus, Pakistan cricket has battled isolation, political turmoil, board instability, frequent coaching changes and selection controversies – all adding to its struggles. Meanwhile, across the border, India has risen as cricket’s powerhouse, backed by a strong domestic system and the IPL, cricket’s richest international league.

Pakistani cricket writer Osman Samiuddin also notes a sense of “marginalisation” among his country’s cricketers, who remain excluded from the IPL and its franchise ecosystem (no Pakistani player has featured in the IPL since 2009, as they were banned after the Mumbai terror attacks). “I think they see Indian cricketers and others as well, like Australian and English cricketers, as partaking in a world of cricket they have been excluded from,” he told a programme.

This has all contributed to the team’s fast-declining fortunes.

“It is a futile exercise to wonder if this is the lowest Pakistan cricket has ever been. However, even when Pakistan have plummeted to spectacular lows in the past, they have done it in a way that justifies the cliché of their mercurial nature,” wrote Sidharth Monga in ESPNcricinfo, after Sunday’s game.

The “war without guns” narrative once held weight, especially when Imran Khan’s Pakistan, armed with a fearsome pace attack of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis and batting stars like Javed Miandad and Inzamam-ul-Haq, regularly got the better of India.

Because of how the real fans felt, the narrative may have been true until the early 2000s. But it was soon hijacked by the multinationals and the media to cash in on the hyper-pathos of it all”, Nadeem Farooq Paracha, Pakistani author and columnist, told me.

The two sides’ level of cricket is “not the same anymore,” he said. Indian cricket is getting better every day. In fact, I believe the Pakistani side is now being more pressured by the narrative in question. They underplay it, even though they’re more than willing to pocket its financial benefits”.

In a time of overexposure to cricket, limited stars, and franchise cricket competition, the ICC won’t dial down the hype, which is too valuable. The cricket boards and broadcasters are doing everything they can to keep the rivalry alive.

According to brand consultant Santosh Desai, the real conflict between the arch rivals takes place beyond the cricket field, where the “rivalry thrives more in imagination than reality.”

“The asymmetry]between the two sides] only fuels the hype. India’s dominance makes it an easy narrative to sell, a battle royale where the outcome feels preordained. If Pakistan were winning consistently, the marketing appeal would fade. The rivalry’s commercial power lies in India’s superiority, feeding a script designed for validation, not uncertainty”, Desai told me.

India’s vice-captain Shubman Gill dismisses talk of overhyping, calling it a contest fans love to watch. When both of these teams play, “it’s a thrilling contest.” Everyone finds it entertaining to watch. If so many people are happy to watch the match, then who are we to say that it is underhyped or overhyped”, he told reporters on eve of Sunday’s game.

Gill is possibly right. Tickets for India-Pakistan games still fly off the shelves – the ICC reported sellouts within minutes. An astonishing 600 plus million viewers tuned in to watch Sunday’s match on Indian streaming platform JioHotstar, setting new records.