"Quality Has Not Been...": Sourav Ganguly's Sharp Take On India-Pakistan Rivalry

The on-field rivalry between India and Pakistan has been legendary over the years and the fanfare around their match in the ICC World Cup 2023 on October 15 has already been dominating major headlines. While the cricketing world has been waiting for the match, former Indian cricket team skipper Sourav Ganguly believes that the quality of the rivalry has deteriorated in the recent past. In a recent interaction, Ganguly said that India have won most of the recent meetings between the two traditional rivals and although the hype is still intact, the lack of quality has severely dented the competition.

“There is a lot of hype in this match but the quality has not been that good for a long time because India kept on winning one-sided. Pakistan probably defeated India for the first time in the T20 World Cup in Dubai,” Ganguly told Star Sports.

Ganguly further added that India and Australia generally had good matches at the World Cup and went on to say that it has slowly evolved into a game which has been better than the India-Pakistan clashes.

“India did not play well in that tournament (2021 T20 WC) but according to me, India vs Australia tends to be a better game in the World Cup because the quality is better,” he added.

India and Pakistan only play cricket against each other in international tournaments, most recently during the T20 World Cup in Australia last year.

When they do play, cricket fans around the world are glued to their TV screens in a multi-billion-dollar bonanza for broadcasters. The 2019 50-over World Cup clash between India and Pakistan drew 273 million viewers.

(With AFP inputs)