What if India and Pakistan were one team?

[Guest prince]

A country in doldrums. A country where the masses live more in hope and fear of the almighty than bread. Floods, bomb blasts, corruption and what not? But all is not lost. A messiah rises from the ashes. Pakistan's cricket captain Salman Butt leads his team to victory against England in a Test match and wastes no time in dedicating the win to the millions caught by the wrath of nature in his motherland. Everyone would like to believe that the worst is over and that things can only get better. What follows is 'Nightmare On Elm Street'. A shocking tale of deceit and betrayal slowly unfurls. The grief-stricken public has been taken for a ride. They have been hoodwinked. The match-fixing scandal involving their cricketers who are their heroes, their soldiers, have let an entire nation down. The people no longer know whether what they see is real. They don't know what or whom to believe. The story is not all that different for their neighbours from across the border. They are no strangers to corruption or violence or natural disasters for that matter. The two countries which was one under the colonists have been involved in three full-fledged wars and share a peculiar love-hate relationship which stretches over sixty years. Enter two wannabes by the name of Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi from either side of the LoC. Amongst all the chaos and confusion involving India and Pakistan in sports and politics, the Indo-Pak tennis pair of Bopanna and Qureshi pull off a stunner by reaching the finals of the men's doubles event at the US Open. "I have one question for everyone. If Bopanna and Qureshi can play together, why cannot India and Pakistan?" a quote by India's sports minister MS Gill which raises even more questions simply because there is probably no logical explanation to the fate of the two countries since partition in 1947. So, the fairytale in progress of Bopanna and Qureshi at this strange hour brings up the question, what might have been in the world of sports had there been no 'partition'? India are yet to find a genuine quick bowler in their cricketing history. Having said that India boast of some world class batsmen in Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman... On the other hand while Pakistan have a barrage of fast bowlers, their batting line up tends to be suspect in bowler-friendly conditions. Goosebumps will be the order of the day if one contemplates a team which has Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Asif and Shoaib Akhtar in its line up. Well, under the current 'fixing' atmosphere the reliability quotient over Asif and co. will be under a heavy cloud. What about the years gone by, when leading all rounders Imran Khan, Kapil Dev and top batsmen Sunil Gavaskar and Javed Miandad could all have played under one flag. Why just cricket? With eleven hockey golds at the Summer Olympics and five World Cup titles between these two arch rivals, field hockey might have been redefined had the two countries been one. Just think of 'player of the tournament' in the 1990 and 94 World Cups, Shahbaz Ahmed from Pakistan and India's Dhanraj Pillay playing together for one team. What about Hassan Sardar (Pakistan) and Mohammed Shahid (India) who ruled the roost during the early eighties? The two Khans from Pakistan, Jahangir and Jansher who won an astounding fourteen World Opens between them might have felt that they owned the game of squash at their peak. Both could have been from the same land as World Chess Champion Vishwanathan Anand and Billiards legend Geet Sethi. It would be a gross understatement to say that there is no dearth of sporting talent in either country. Alas, one can only marvel at the endless possibilities which are not a reality. But let bygones be bygones and for the time being and let's just pray for the success of Rohan Bopanna and Aisam Qureshi from both sides of the border.

[Clarke]

I hate this stupid 'together' crap coming up ever so often. Its not like India and Pakistan are the size of islands of West Indies. Do the Australians or Kiwis ever come up with such fantasies? Do they ever whine about their relatively limited human resource pool?

[Deleted_User_1]

Leaving the partisanship aside, and the recent spot fixing allegation notwithstanding, just think of this test team: Sehwag Gambhir Dravid Tendulkar Yousuf Laxman Dhoni Zak Amir Asif Ajmal Harbhajan Ishant (you select the right combination of bowlers based on pitch conditions) I think this would be a team to beat in today's cricket.

[Zap_Brannigan]

Leaving the partisanship aside, and the recent spot fixing allegation notwithstanding, just think of this test team: Sehwag Gambhir Dravid Tendulkar Yousuf - Mullah who cannot get with the hindus in the side or was it malik?Besides he might even turn back and walk to ICF or any other league if they offered more Laxman Dhoni Zak Amir - Match fixer who will strive to lose the game Asif - Match fixer who will strive to lose the game Ajmal - will soon be reported for chucking and wont play for sometime Harbhajan Ishant (you select the right combination of bowlers based on pitch conditions) I think this would be a team to beat in today's cricket.

I think i will stop watching cricket if this is "my" team! The team to beat today is already there. Just replace the pakis with Indians. They fought hard and earned their place as #1. Why would you sully their services and bring in cheating pakis into the side?? As a fan i find the whole thought of having a few pak players will suddenly make the team world beaters (when we have managed to be world beaters without them just fine) insulting.

[Pak_Forever]

Naah. I will pass.

[Clarke]

I think the purpose was to entertain the thoughts of a combined XI' date=' from a performance perspective at least, not to debate the merits of partition.[/quote'] Read what i wrote one more time. India, Pakistan or any other nation should be entertaining thoughts of producing an XI that merits comparisons with the Windies of the 80s and the Aussies a few yrs back. Somehow we seem to lack the individualism and the belief that we should by ourselves be the very best, period. Tell me this, do the Aussies come up with such ideas, say Australia & NZ XI so that players like Taylor, Bond & Vettori could compliment the Australian side ?

[ravishingravi]

Firstly, from a political and economic perspective, I will pass. It is like Asking SA to be one with Somalia. I mean there is no incentive. Pak. is effectively a failed state and India is one of the fastest developing ones. Fact From cricketing perspective, it ll be interesting, but I would rather have the rivalry with Pak. In fact, lot of their great talent would have been overlooked if we had been one.

[Zap_Brannigan]

Naah. I will pass.

Not enough match fixers in the team for your liking?

[Pak_Forever]

Firstly, from a political and economic perspective, I will pass. It is like Asking SA to be one with Somalia. I mean there is no incentive. Pak. is effectively a failed state and India is one of the fastest developing ones. Fact From cricketing perspective, it ll be interesting, but I would rather have the rivalry with Pak. In fact, lot of their great talent would have been overlooked if we had been one.

Pakistan was economically doing really well and GDP was booming before 9/11 and before American terrorist army invaded the whole region. Once they are out of Afghanistan, Pakistan will be back on track. Pakistan has only been going through the turmoil since last few years. It's not a "failed" state that you guys are obsessed with. Your booming country got trillions of problems too. From cricketing point, don't mind but Pakistan has produced equal class of batsmen, better al-rounders, and much much better bowlers. So overall Pakistan convincingly beats India. In batting we had Zaheer Abaas the Asian Bradman, Javed Miandad, Saeed Anwar, Inzamam, Imran Khan, etc. If we had a match b/w all time best India 11 vs all time best Pakistan 11 then honestly its really hard to imagine an Indian win.

[Deleted_User_1]

Pakistan was economically doing really well and GDP was booming before 9/11 and before American terrorist army invaded the whole region. Once they are out of Afghanistan, Pakistan will be back on track. Pakistan has only been going through the turmoil since last few years. It's not a "failed" state that you guys are obsessed with. Your booming country got trillions of problems too. From cricketing point, don't mind but Pakistan has produced equal class of batsmen, better al-rounders, and much much better bowlers. So overall Pakistan convincingly beats India. In batting we had Zaheer Abaas the Asian Bradman, Javed Miandad, Saeed Anwar, Inzamam, Imran Khan, etc. If we had a match b/w all time best India 11 vs all time best Pakistan 11 then honestly its really hard to imagine an Indian win.

Zaheer Abaas the Asian Bradman :hysterical::hysterical::hysterical: Thanks for the laugh! What is Butt then? The cheating Bradman!! :haha:

[ravishingravi]

Pakistan was economically doing really well and GDP was booming before 9/11 and before American terrorist army invaded the whole region. Once they are out of Afghanistan, Pakistan will be back on track. Pakistan has only been going through the turmoil since last few years. It's not a "failed" state that you guys are obsessed with. Your booming country got trillions of problems too. From cricketing point, don't mind but Pakistan has produced equal class of batsmen, better al-rounders, and much much better bowlers. So overall Pakistan convincingly beats India. In batting we had Zaheer Abaas the Asian Bradman, Javed Miandad, Saeed Anwar, Inzamam, Imran Khan, etc. If we had a match b/w all time best India 11 vs all time best Pakistan 11 then honestly its really hard to imagine an Indian win.

Let me quote something the Dawn, Pak. newspaper said on Pak. economy, the GDP growth rate is expected to be 4% at best for current fiscal year could come down to 1% and is most likely on the verge of collapse with the spending being twice the reveune. I retract, it is not a "failed" state yet, but it well and truly on the verge. Pak. spends less than 4$ per child on education and its education budget continues to go down inspite of increasing contingent between age 10-30. Let me also make it very clear, since I do not sound anti-pak, the problem is not with the people, the problem is with the establishment which is just about as corrupt and incompetent as they come. You have a convicted criminal as the leader of the state. In 60 years, the country has still not had land reforms and works on a feudal structure. I agree that war on terror has destabilized the country, but when you mention about early part of the decade being good times, you fail to recognize that it was good in light of a "coup". A coup is generally considered the darkest phase in any democracy, like the emergency in India. Pak. have basically replaced a military coup with sham democracy. Ofcourse, I would not even go into the radicalization and being labelled the "epicentre of terror" I am not very proud of India generally and you are right it has its fair share of problems, but there is very little to be envious from our neighbours. In cricketing side, I always Pak. is the brazil of cricket minus the success rate. They have produced the greatest talent in last 3 decades.

[DomainK]

if both countries were not divided then from a laden would have come....there would have been no terrorism then.....no Kashmir problems......we need to understand this too....this terrorism problem started bcoz india and pakistan are two countries.....then there would have been no pakistan only India or Hidustan

Tough to say rkt. I believe the partition played a significant role in strengthening terrorism, but it's always tough to predict what could have happened if history was different. We need to swallow the present reality, stop fantasizing about the past and look towards building a better future from whatever we have in present. The fact is that partition did happen, Pakistan exists. As far as cricket is concerned, I would concede that India could have been a much better team with the quality of fast bowlers Pakistan has managed to produce (without the dishonesty part). So, lets hope we manage to do it from the massive talent pool we have within the country.

[satyam1729]

Pakistan was economically doing really well and GDP was booming before 9/11 and before American terrorist army invaded the whole region. Once they are out of Afghanistan, Pakistan will be back on track. Pakistan has only been going through the turmoil since last few years. It's not a "failed" state that you guys are obsessed with. Your booming country got trillions of problems too. From cricketing point, don't mind but Pakistan has produced equal class of batsmen, better al-rounders, and much much better bowlers. So overall Pakistan convincingly beats India. In batting we had Zaheer Abaas the Asian Bradman, Javed Miandad, Saeed Anwar, Inzamam, Imran Khan, etc. If we had a match b/w all time best India 11 vs all time best Pakistan 11 then honestly its really hard to imagine an Indian win.

This is why Pakistan has never won a WC game against India :haha::hysterical::giggle: And btw no body buys your booming gdp. You were depended on doles of USA from day 1.And yes you are a failed banana republic.

[Desi Cartman]

before 9/11 and before American terrorist army invaded the whole region.

You guys are crazy .. Afghans/taliban attack NYC and you call americans terrorists :phehehe:

[yoda]

I for one would love a unified country if only to not have an *****hole for a neighbor. As for the cricket team, their bats barring Miandad aren't fit to shine some our of greats' shoes, so pass there. Pak has produced some pretty good bowlers, but most of them have been cheats either with coke caps or drugs, so leaving the cheats out, you are left with a precious few if at all.

[saneindian]

Purely from a cricketing perspective, I will still pick all Indians in my 11 and that team will still be good enough to beat anyother side despite not having speed merchants. A bowling lineup of Kapil , Srinath/Amar Singh, Zaheer, Kumble, Bedi/Chandra/Prasanna will be good enough to take 20 wickets in any conditions.

[Asim]

We have an option to mark any post as "Great Post", can't we have one to mark as "worst post" too?

[DomainK]

Purely from a cricketing perspective, I will still pick all Indians in my 11 and that team will still be good enough to beat anyother side despite not having speed merchants. A bowling lineup of Kapil , Srinath/Amar Singh, Zaheer, Kumble, Bedi/Chandra/Prasanna will be good enough to take 20 wickets in any conditions.

If you analyze it, our seemingly ineffective bowlers (ZAK, Sree, Ishant, RP, Munaf etc) have taken 20 wickets in a test match far more consistently than the seemingly destructive, fast and unplayable powerhouse bowlers. How else are we at no1? Our bowlers may not be as fast, but they do a far more effective job as a unit.

[don_corleone840]

What if India and Pakistan were one team? Then i will take citizenship of srilanka

[achilles]

That is one awesome write-up. The majority might not agree with you. But reps for you. India has produced the greatest batsmen the world has seen and Pakistan has been home to the most phenomenal bowling attack to have graced the game. Club the two together, spice it with discipline, pepper it with hard work and you have the strongest cricket team on the planet.