If you’re looking for the most politicized international sport, the sport most ridden with the visceral furies that pit nation against nation, look no further than cricket.
International cricket has a smaller pool of adherent nations than almost all other major sports and is on a par with baseball in terms of the number of countries that take it seriously. Yet it is today a rancorous mess. And the protagonists of this mess are nations of the Indian subcontinent.
In truth, as with all problems in this benighted region, the troubles that beset cricket can be traced directly to India and Pakistan, sullen neighbors who have gone to war with each other four times since their independence from Britain in 1947.
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