Sport, George Orwell wrote, 'is war minus the shooting'.Sadly, when the contest is India-Pakistan, and the sport is cricket, the distinction isn't always apparent.PETER ROEBUCK: Game to stop a subcontinentTonight's Cricket World Cup semi-final is the first match between the two nations since 10 Pakistani terrorists laid siege to India's largest city Mumbai in 2008, killing more than 170 people.
On-field, there is barely a sporting scenario conceivable in which more could be at stake - a sudden-death play-off for a place in a World Cup final, the match to be played, really, in the teams' shared backyard, the province of Punjab which was cut in two when India and Pakistan were created six decades ago.
Off-field, the match will be played under what is reportedly the largest security presence ever assembled for a cricket match anywhere in the world.
More than 1000 police are patrolling the Hotel Taj in Chandigarh where the teams are staying, and a further 3000 will guard the teams' route to the PCA Stadium and the ground itself.
A no-fly zone has been declared for the whole city to be enforced by army anti-aircraft guns. And across Punjab, hotel guests are being shaken from their beds in the middle of the night and quizzed about their bona fides.
Following intelligence reports suggesting the game could be targeted by terrorists, special government-run buses will bring Pakistani fans from Wagah, the only land border crossing between the two countries.
For the match itself, sub-plots abound.
This match could have been Pakistan's. The country was sacked as a co-host of this tournament after cricketers became the target of masked gunmen in Lahore two years ago.
The country's foreign minister has publicly warned his players he is "watching very closely" for match fixing.
In India, the country's favourite son, Sachin Tendulkar, in his last World Cup, sits on 99 international centuries. To bring up his 100th hundred against this rival would be too saccharine a fairytale, or too cruel a fate, for those on either side of the Radcliffe Line.
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