India, May 9 -- Sports and politics, it has been maintained forever - with or without complete justification - must not be allowed to overlap, that one has to be kept separate from the other. In theory, it is a sound concept, but practical considerations have often come in the way, ensuring, especially in the case of India, Pakistan and cricket, that it is impossible to separate one from the other.

Such is the lot of the sport, given its popularity, pull and power to unite (mainly), that cricket has often been used as a means to assuage tensions, leading to the coinage of the phrase 'cricket diplomacy'. The first tangible evidence of cricket's power to heal dates back to February 1987 when Gen Zia-ul-Haq, the then Pakistani President, tr...