India, Sept. 14 -- The foreboding shadow of Pahalgam is impossible to ignore. The grisly tragedy that claimed 26 innocent lives on April 22 will linger in our memories long beyond the foreseeable future. Operation Sindoor, the armed forces' retaliatory strikes, will stand as testimony to India's unwillingness to take terror lying down. Viewed against all this, a game of cricket seems insignificant, miniscule, even crassly insensitive in the opinion of numerous hundreds of thousands.

Understandably, therefore, the build-up to India's clash against Pakistan on Sunday in the T20 Asia Cup has been diffused, uneasily tense and respectfully mindful of public sentiment back home. In normal course, cricket would have taken centre-stage but this ...