IND vs PAK: Remembering the last time arch-rivals played in North America

Even before the advent of T20 cricket which is now ruling the roster in North America, especially the United States with the introduction of the Major League Cricket (MLC), cricket used to be madly popular and the ODIs were lapped up by people of the Indian subcontinent leaving in Canada and USA with great interest.

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As India and Pakistan go head-to-head against each other in the T20 World Cup 2024, here we look back at the last time when the two teams played against each other in the North American continent.

Start of the Sahara Cup

The India and Pakistan rivalry in the North American continent started with Sahara Cup. Since Canada has a rich South Asian population and cricket is next to religion in India and Pakistan, it was viewed as one of the biggest markets to get cricket as close to the USA as possible.

In the first edition of the planned five-year bilateral series named the 'Friendship' Cup sponsored by Sahara, along the lines of the Sharjah Cup in the UAE, five matches were played between Sachin Tendulkar-led India and Wasim Akram-led Pakistan.

Pakistan wins the first series

Contrary to expectations the series turned out to be one-sided and Pakistan won the series 3-2. Only the second ODI at the Toronto Cricket, Skating and Curling Club in Toronto was won by Pakistan by two wickets and turned out to be a thriller in the 1996 series.

India gives it back

Into the next season, India came back roaring to win the series 4-1. If Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble were the highest run-scorers and wicket-takers for the Men in Blue in the first series, Sourav Ganguly and Harvinder Singh came out to be the trump cards.

In this series though, matches got closer and the two teams under the captaincy of Sachin Tendulkar and Ramiz Raza fought well. India won the series 4-1.

Two matches that got noticed were the first one in which India managed to defend 208 and won the match by 20 runs after bowling Pakistan out for 188. Similarly in the third match, after posting 182/6, India managed to restrict Pakistanis to just 148, this time Ganguly picking 5/16.

Sad end to cricket's growth in Canada and North America

The series was supposed to go on till 2000, however, after the end of the 1998 series Pakistan won 4-1, winning all four games by great margins, the next two seasons of the five-season were called off after both countries went to war over Kargil and all ties including sporting ones were cut between the two sides.

Thus, the popularity of cricket, which was on the rise in Canada and North America, came to a sudden halt as Sahara, the prime sponsor pulled out because of reasons that were not even remotely related to cricket.