New Delhi, Feb. 10 -- Pakistan's decision to play its high-stakes T20 World Cup fixture against India on February 15 came only after weeks of brinkmanship and behind-the-scenes diplomacy - and, in its final hours, a striking intervention from the country's cricket board chief that pulled the military into what should have been a sporting dispute. Just hours before the match was confirmed, Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Mohsin Naqvi, who also serves as the country's interior minister, invoked Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir while insisting Pakistan would not be cowed by what he described as pressure from India and the International Cricket Council.

The episode, unfolding amid rising regional sensitivities and Pakistan's domestic political ...