Neither team won a gold at the championship but "friendship came out as the winner", as they say
In March 2004, India toured Pakistan in a cricket series and the reception Indian fans and team received surprised and overwhelmed everyone from across Wagah - the tour was won by India but the spirit shown by Pakistani fans was fantastic. The winning Indian team were cheered and given standing ovations and Irfan Pathan, the bowler, was cheered loudly in Peshawar as he bowled to the Pakistani batsmen. Top Indian actors, former sportsmen and politicians turned up for the historic series, even the two scions of the Kennedys of India, Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi
img © tribuneindia
In March 2005, the Pakistani team returned the visit and it left the Indians wondering if their countrymen could reciprocate Pakistani hospitality. Even though the Indian people were found to be generally supportive off the field, in the streets and markets, in the stands it was a different story. Eyewitness accounts of Pakistani fans sitting in the crowd tell how they started to feel hostility when the Pakistani bowlers started putting the pressure in Delhi and only singing we-love-delhi ditties created in run-time could helped them sit through them match
The biggest winner for Pakistan would be if the Indians could forget the previous Indian governments' propaganda that Pakistan is the Big-Evil and both countries could have a culture of hospitality and friendliness to match and even exceed that within the EU... england, france and the others forgot their centuries old tribal wars, why not the peoples of one of the richest and most ancient cultures in the world?
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