Cricket diplomacy

Cricket hasn’t always been thought of as �weird� in the U.S. but the U.S. refused to join the Imperial Cricket Council, formed by Britain and others, and so America moved on to other sports. But in India and Pakistan, the sport took off. The Head Sports Editor for BBC says part of the reason for its popularity is that India and Pakistan have remained competitive in cricket. This sports columnist believes if the U.S. were to field a traveling cricket team, it could go a long way towards easing current tensions between Pakistan and America. This commentator agrees with that to a point�he’s not quite certain that America playing cricket would make a strong link to Pakistan. He points out that a current popular cricket player in Pakistan has tried his hand and politics and had no success. That cricket player says the divide between the U.S. and Pakistan is because the current war on terror is being played out as a war on Islam, so the U.S. can never be popular in Pakistan because of that. He suggests what the U.S. should do is stop firing missiles in northern Pakistan and get out of Afghanistan.