Cricket as a Bridge and Barrier in India-Pakistan Relations: Exploring Sports Diplomacy Post-1999 Research Question How has cricket functioned both as a diplomatic bridge and as a source of tension between India and Pakistan since 1999? To answer this, I will also need to investigate: 1. What roles have individual cricket matches played in influencing political relations between India and Pakistan? 2. How has the concept of “cricket diplomacy” evolved in response to the political climate? 3. In what ways has cricket fueled nationalist sentiment within each country, and how does this impact cross-border relations? Overview of the Topic and Knowledge Gap Crick’s (2009) study presents cricket as a tool of multi-track diplomacy between India and Pakistan, highlighting its potential to influence both high-level political interactions and popular perceptions between these nations. Despite extensive literature on Indo- Pak cricket diplomacy, there is limited exploration of how public an...