In England we have long regarded our Ashes encounters with Australia as embodying the biggest cricketing rivalry in the world. We deceive ourselves. India versus Pakistan is now the most meaningful and tremendous sporting contest - not just in cricket but in all world sport.

Compared to the pulsating, passionate, primordial struggle that will today convulse all of India and Pakistan, the Ashes, it has to be admitted, counts for relatively little.

When Ricky Ponting and his green-capped losers were blown away by Andrew Strauss and his men three months ago, the worst they suffered was wounded pride and a mauling in the Australian press.

If history is anything to go by, today's losers will face professional disgrace and social ostracism. They will not be able to return to their homes for fear of physical attack. Some may receive obscene phone calls in the night, as Pakistani skipper Wasim Akram did after his country's quarter-final defeat to India in 1996. His home was stoned, his effigy burnt in the street, and he required a police escort to go outside.

Read more at the Daily Telegraph UK ...