October 16, 1952: The 1st India-Pakistan Cricket Match

October 16, 1952: India and Pakistan, both having become independent from Britain 5 years earlier, play each other in cricket, a sport they inherited from their former colonial masters and kept because they loved it, for the 1st time. From October 16 to 19, at Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in New Dehli, India, they play a traditional 5-day test match, and India win, by an innings and 70 runs.

(The current national capital of New Dehli was created as a separate district from the wider city of Dehli, and includes the venue for this test match, which is now named Arun Jaitley Stadium. The renaming came in 2019 after the death of Jaitley, former President of the Dehli & District Cricket Association.)

But such international cricket competitions usually come in runs of 5 tests. At the University Ground in Lucknow, Pakistan won the 2nd Test, October 23 to 26, by an innings and 43 runs. At Brabourne Stadium in Bombay (now known by its native name, Mumbai), India won the 3rd Test, November 13 to 16, by 10 wickets. At MA Chidambaram Stadium in Madras, the 4th Test, November 28 to December 1, was drawn. And at Eden Gardens in Calcutta, the 5th Test, December 12 to 15, was also drawn. So, India won, 2-1-2.

I've been told by an Indian who I know online from our shared fandom of London soccer team Arsenal that this is the greatest sports rivalry in the world. It carries with it the weight of history and the influence of religion: Most Indians are Hindu, while Pakistanis are, by definition, Muslim.

Despite India's massive edge in population -- 1.38 billion, as opposed to 243 million -- they've only beaten Pakistan 71 times, while Pakistan has beaten India 88 times. There have been 43 draws. India has won the Cricket World Cup in 1983 and 2011, while Pakistan won it in 1992. (The tournament, which began in 1975, has also been won by Australia 5 times, in 1987, 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2015; the West Indies team twice, in 1975 and 1979; Sri Lanka in 1996, and England in 2019.)

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October 16, 1952 was a Thursday. Baseball season had ended 9 days earlier, with the New York Yankees beating the Brooklyn Dodgers in the World Series. Football was in midweek. The NBA season started 15 days later. The NHL's entire "Original Six" were in action:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Montreal Canadiens, 3-1 at the Montreal Forum.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 2-1 at the Boston Garden.

* And the Detroit Red Wings beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 7-0 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.