5 Reasons Why No-One Cares About India Vs. Pakistan

And so India and Pakistan face off again in today's Asia Cup match to decide...well, nothing. Here are my top 5 reasons why this rivalry has lost its appeal.

5. Over-playing each other

If England and Germany played each other at football every other day, the whole magic of the tie would lose its appeal. The same is true of India vs. Pakistan.

It seems that these two countries love playing each other so much they have to do it almost every week. There is no magic about the match anymore and no excitement around it because the same players played each other five times in the last year.

4. Lack of flashpoints

In most of the recent matches between the two sides, the games have been played out in good spirits, with little or no drama to speak of. This is much less interesting for the neutral and detracts from the excitement.

Where is the great rivalries between these countries of the past? Who knows.

3. The matches don't matter

The Kitply Cup? The Asia Cup? Any cricket tournament that includes Hong Kong and the UAE can't mean that much. Hell, the matches against these two sides don't even count towards ICC rankings because they're so insignificant!

I'm sure it's a great feeling to get one over on your rivals, but there's no point if the trophy at the end is meaningless.

2. Lack of genuine competition

India are the better side. There can be no arguing this. Fair enough, Pakistan took the Tri Series in the final but that was an anomalous result as can be seen if you look at the thousands of times these two have met in the recent past.

India will walk all over Pakistan in most games; they have more talent and a wider pool of players to pick from. If there isn't a genuine contest then it's not exciting.

1. Lack of world-class talent

I'm not sure anyone in the Pakistan lineup would get near a World XI. Tanvir, maybe, but he's far from proven over the course of many years. India have a better side, as I have said, but there isn't too much to pick out of their team that you can't have elsewhere.

Jayasuriya is more consistent than Sehwag.

Brett Lee is faster and more accurate than Zaheer Khan.

Sidebottom is a better swing bowler than SreeSanth.

Albie Morkel is a better all-rounder than Yusuf Pathan.

Vettori is a better spinner than Chawla.

Sangakkara is a better wicketkeeper-batsman than Dhoni.

Pakistan vs. India used to be a showcase for the best talent in the world, but for that nowadays I'd be more inclined to watch Australia, Sri Lanka or South Africa.

Sorry, guys, but as far as I'm concerned, the rest of the world just doesn't care about cricket's "greatest rivalry" anymore.