For many, cricket is more than a game; it’s a passion, a pride, and a most enjoyable activity. Whether watching on TV or live in a stadium, people forget about all the rivalries and just enjoy the match. However, we have seen that politics and personal rivalries have sometimes influenced this cheerful game into a hostile occasion, and the same thing happened in the Asia Cup 2025.

On September 14, there was a match between India and Pakistan in Dubai, where India won the match by 7 wickets. We witnessed a bitter event, particularly for this match, and once again, politics influenced the spirit of the cricket. Some of the people supporting the Indian team encourage people to boycott the tournament beascue they don’t want Pakistan to be in this tournament. Boycott, because of Pakistan, why??​

Because of the Pahalgam Attack (Kashmir, India) on 22 April 2025, in which 26 Indian civilians were killed. And Pakistan was blamed for this because the attackers mainly attacked the Hindu civilians, but not to forget that a Christian tourist and a Muslim were also killed. So how can Pakistan be blamed for it??​

Some of the Indian team supporters wanted to boycott the tournament because of Pakistan. And that’s when what was beyond the stadium boundary was unnecessarily dragged into it without any valid reason. The Asia cup is not only about India and Pakistan; there are other countries in it as well, so why should this rivalry by Indian supporters affect the whole tournament?

​What was not the talk of the stadium was unnecessarily dragged in, why?? All because of the hatred and rivalry of some Indian team supporters. Besides the Indian supporters, we also witnessed the Indian team captain, Suryakumar Yadav, also trying to bring this hatred into the stadium by dedicating the team’s win to the victims of the Pahalgam attack.

​He said:

“We stand by the victims of the families of the Pahalgam terror attack. We express our solidarity. We want to dedicate today’s win to all our Armed Forces who showed a lot of bravery. Hope they continue to inspire us all, and we give them more reasons on the ground whenever we get an opportunity to make them smile.”

No doubt, grief and standing by others in the time of tragedy are what every human should do. But the unnecessary and deliberate insertion of politics into this match, particularly, was just like an attempt to add fuel to the fire and give spark to the hatred instead of stopping it. Which did nothing but turn the joyful cricket match into a hostile event.

The media also played its role in this rivalry, which was sad to see. Instead of focusing on what was happening outside the boundary and reporting about who won or lost, they should have also shared the highlights of some good moments between the two teams, fans applauding for the opponents teams skills, and captains’ encouraging words for their teams.

Despite all the efforts of bringing politics into the cricket match, both teams played with full spirit and had some standout moments which showed that the player did not want fans to make this match remember only with bitter memories. The match also drew millions of views on social media from all around the world.

​It was a match, one has to win or lose, but the biggest victory this time was that the match took place even with the hatred shown by the Indian team supporters. Regardless of what was the situation outside the boundary and between the fans, this match was a perfect example that cricket can never be influenced by such propaganda.

​Cricket has always been a sport where different countries come together with their sportsman spirit regardless of nationality, race, color, and language. The hatred by Indian supporters badly influenced the spirit of the Asia cup 2025 and the match of India vs Pakistan in particular. Hopefully, we will not witness such rivalry and politics will not influence cricket next time. And everyone will be able to enjoy the match with the same spirit as before.

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