Few Australians are aware that Indian contingents fought alongside the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps at Gallipoli that is so central to the founding myth of Australian (and New Zealand) identity. As cricket legend Rahul Dravid noted in the 2011 Bradman Oration at the Australian War Memorial, appropriately enough, 1,300 Indian soldiers lost their lives at Gallipoli. Indians fought alongside Australians also in “El Alamein, North Africa, in the Syria-Lebanon campaign, in Burma, in the battle for Singapore” during the Second World War.

For starters, we could have never used this headline for an Ashes series. The reason, if I may add, is pretty simple — there are no political overtones to the Ashes whereas an India-Pakistan series is seldom without a political “tarkaa.” Perhaps, that is what raises the excitement quotient of India-Pakistan cricket.

AS JULIA GILLARD has proved again, when it comes to the relationship between Australia and the subcontinent, there's no diplomatic tool more powerful than cricket. The Prime Minister was in India last week to talk trade and cultural ties but what hogged the headlines was her announcement that the Indian cricket great, Sachin Tendulkar, would be awarded membership of the Order of Australia.

Only cricket diplomacy will not do between India and Pakistan...Polo is one of the favourite games in both Baltistan and Ladakh. This is the traditional sport of both the regions. If this sport is encouraged then people from both these regions can be made to come together in dialogue and cross-border tours and travel which will open new vistas for reaching long-lasting peace.

A diplomacy expert believes India's invitation to Pakistan for a series of cricket matches later this year could help to improve political ties.

After four years of constant refusal to resume bilateral cricketing relations and giving Pakistan cricket the cold shoulder, the ice has finally started to melt. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) finally decided to restart the most intense cricket rivalry in the world, having invited Pakistan to play three One-Day Internationals and two Twenty20s in India later this year.

Dubai: Ever since the news of resumption of India-Pakistan cricketing ties broke on Monday afternoon, the readers’ polls and social networking websites have gone into a tizzy. The range of emotions, both for and against the tour, clearly shows the passion that the game can ignite between the two countries.

India and Pakistan will play a series of cricket matches later this year, marking the resumption of bilateral sporting ties after five years. Cricket matches between the South Asian rivals are not only one of the world’s most intense sporting rivalries - they are often intertwined with politics.