TThere hasn’t been a match between India and Pakistan that hasn’t had a lot going on in one way or another. The rivalry, which spans 59 Tests, 135 One-Day Internationals and 12 T20s in 75 years, is as intense as any in international sport. But this latest match between the teams is being played for strange and unknown stakes.
Over the past week it has become clear that the success of the entire New York leg of the T20 World Cup will depend on it and that the entire multi-million dollar project, which included the construction of an entire 34,000-seater stadium, is organized around this fixture.
The Nassau County site was not sold out for any of the first three group games. The combined attendance was only approximately equal to capacity. The architects made the place so big that even the 20,000 spectators who turned out for India’s victory against Ireland seemed a little lost in the huge scaffolding stands.
Tickets for India vs Pakistan, on the other hand, are long gone. The few available for resale start at $700 (£550) each – a cut above the last hospitality spots, which cost $10,000. A large portion of the company boxes, which have been empty all week, will be used for this game before being dismantled again.
Most locals don’t even know the match is happening, but the few who do don’t talk about much else. It seems like just about everyone in the Pakistani and Indian-American communities will be there, and everyone else will want to know how they can join them.
“Pretty much everyone I see asks me for a ticket,” said Venu Pisike, the US cricket chairman. American bowler Ali Khan sighed: “Oh man, don’t even go there. I’ve had to stop answering the requests. I don’t even mess with the tickets for that game, it’s crazy.”
Regardless of the actual game, you will not be able to attend the viewing party hosted by the New York Mets at Citi Field. They expect 27,000 people to watch the game on the big screen, while another 5,000 or so will attend a similar event a few miles from Eisenhower Park at Cedar Creek Park. That’s before you start adding all the people watching the game in restaurants, bars, and convenience stores around town.
The small town of Westbury has no idea what’s in store for it. “We don’t know what to expect,” said county executive Bruce Blakeman, “but we’re told it will be like the Super Bowl on steroids.”
An additional 100 police patrols have been deployed in the county and 300 local officers will be on duty at the scene, plus an undisclosed number of reinforcements from Suffolk County, state police and the FBI. They have snipers on nearby rooftops, SWAT teams at every gate, flatbed trucks blocking every route to the site, and a team of fifty officers monitoring “every inch of the site” with cameras from a remote location.
According to Police Chief Patrick Ryder, this is the biggest thing that will happen in the county since President Obama passed it in 2012. “We consider this to be the same threat level as the presidential visit,” he said, “but the operation itself is much bigger because that was just one person and this is well over 30,000.”
The ground is as ready as it will be. The fields, covered in beds brought over from Australia, have been pretty wild all week. Coaches and batsmen have complained of irregular bouncing and three players were hit during India’s match against Ireland.
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Groundsstaff then carried out 24 hours of emergency work and although the batsmen still found it difficult to time the ball during Ireland’s second match against Canada on Friday, at least no one else had to retire injured. The teams also managed to get past the hundred runs mark, something no other team had achieved.
The ICC may be independent, but it is still accountable to the Board of Control for Cricket in India and its broadcast partners, which generate 85% of the game’s revenue. The prospect of this match being played on an unsuitable and even dangerous pitch made the administrators more nervous than the batters.
The teams themselves are well used to the fuss surrounding these matches. The state of relations between the countries means that India and Pakistan only play each other in international tournaments, but because the ICC always ensures that they are paired, India and Pakistan have played each other 18 times in the last ten years.
The players, the only people who understand what it feels like to be in the middle of a match that regularly attracts nearly 500 million spectators, have developed a kind of kinship with each other. They usually get along better than their politicians.
India, who crushed Ireland by eight wickets here on Wednesday, look formidable. Pakistan, who lost to the US in a super over in Dallas in the first shock of the tournament on Thursday, is not. Whoever wins, the organizers will settle for a few good scores, a close finish, a handful of sixes and a clean getaway for the VIPs.