The cricket fixture South Asia's politics did not stop this spring was Bangladesh against Pakistan. The Bangladesh Cricket Board announced in January that Pakistan would tour twice in 2026 — three ODIs in March, two Tests in May. [1] The March series went ahead in Dhaka despite uncertainty driven by the Iran war and airspace closures across the Gulf that briefly grounded the carriers Pakistani cricketers normally use to fly over India. [2] Bangladesh and Pakistan split the ODIs 2-1 in Mirpur on 11, 13 and 15 March. [3] The first Test ended Tuesday this week, May 12, with Bangladesh winning by 104 runs in Mirpur. [4] The second Test begins Saturday in Sylhet despite a five-day rain forecast that the BCB has decided not to treat as a venue change. [5]

The schedule held because the alternative would have closed it. Bangladesh withdrew from the T20 World Cup that India hosted earlier this year over political tensions — Scotland replaced the team. [2] Pakistan cannot enter Indian airspace and has been routing its teams through Emirates, Qatar or Etihad carriers, all of which had service disruptions during the Iran war. [2] In March the BCB publicly waited on Pakistani communication that never came in writing; in private the boards moved schedules to fit around the PSL final on May 3. [6] The Test series fits inside the ICC World Test Championship 2025-27 cycle, which is the institutional reason both boards needed it to happen. [1]

The brief from the May 14 paper is that the BAN-PAK fixture is the South Asian bilateral cricket schedule still moving during the regional crisis, not a postponement. The political artifact is who is absent — India is. The Sylhet Test starts in two days under a thunderstorm forecast that the BCB has decided to overrule.

-- PRIYA SHARMA, Delhi