Cricket teams from India and Pakistan meet for the first time since armed conflict in May

Due to political tensions, the two nations have rarely played against each other in recent years, Shah said.

Since late July, when the match was first announced, social media users in both countries have been calling for a boycott.

“No point in wasting time by watching India vs Pakistan,” read a typical post on X, one of more than 27,000 posts on the match as of Friday according to the trending section.

Shah said that hundreds of millions of people would still watch the match, adding that “the financial value of this game is still massive.”

“Twenty-seven thousand tweets doesn’t mean anything,” he said in a phone interview from Pakistan. “I’m pretty sure that’s not the majority view, and I don’t think it will really dent the numbers for the game.”

On Friday, premium tickets ranging from $212 to VIP seats priced at about $4,500 were still available for purchase, according to ticketing website Platinum List. Typically, games between India and Pakistan sell out well in advance.

In February, a match between India and Pakistan at the Pakistan-hosted Champions Trophy generated 26 billion minutes of viewing time on television alone, according to the International Cricket Council (ICC), the global governing body of cricket. That number surpassed the 19.5 billion viewing minutes recorded when the two sides met during the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2023.

Though the Champions Trophy took place before the terrorist attack and armed conflict this spring, India’s matches were held in Dubai because the Indian team refused to play in Pakistan.

Fans from both India and Pakistan have mixed feelings about the match on Sunday.

Vidya Mansinghani, a 30-year-old graphic designer from Mumbai, India’s commercial capital, said she would normally have hosted a watch party with friends and cousins, but decided against doing so this time due to differing views within her social circle. Still, she’ll be watching from home.

“I am a patriot, and what happened in Pahalgam was extremely painful,” Mansinghani said, referring to the April terrorist attack in Kashmir.

“But at the same time, cricket is part of our culture. I just don’t feel it’s right not to support our own players,” she added.

Harris Arshad, 29, a project manager from Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, said he would be watching Sunday’s grudge match despite the calls for a boycott.

The match “should proceed despite tensions, as sports can bridge divides and promote goodwill,” Arshad said, adding that the neutral venue “ensures safety.”

“Canceling would harm cricket’s spirit and set a poor precedent for international events amid political issues.”