English 123

                The first thing this article reminded me of was the Summit Series between Canada and the former USSR during the height of the Cold War in 1972.  It pitted the best Soviet ice hockey players against the best Canadian players in the world.  The purpose was to finally decide which country held world hockey supremacy.  The entire Canadian team was well known because they all played in the National Hockey League.  Due to the “Iron Curtain” in the Soviet Union during that time period, nearly the entire Soviet team was unknown; with only rumours or myths circulating about them.  Canada went on to win in a spectacular finish.

                This series was originally dubbed the “friendship” series, but that is little known today.  Hearing about this same concept coming to life between two countries that are currently experiencing some serious conflict seemed like the right idea.  Especially since sports are seen as a universal connection.  Just look at the Olympics for global unity around sports.  But once I started to think more about it, there seemed to be an ever increasing amount of problems that could crop up.  No one has stated that this sporting event would be geared towards creating a better connection between the two nations by having their field hockey teams start the connection.  This could result in most people seeing it as a point of national pride, which could just end up heating up the friction between the two countries.  I know when the Summit Series occurred, there was national pride on the line, but neither Canada nor the USSR had a previous history of war with each other.  Along with the geographical location of Pakistan and India, combined with their history, this could just result in pitting the two nations against each other in another area.  Hopefully I am completely wrong in my speculations, as I am naturally a tad bit of a pessimist.  With any luck,  this could result in a peaceful competition and lessen tensions between these two countries.