The Indian cricket squad arrives today in Pakistan for their three Test and five one-day matches. When the final Test finishes in Rawalpindi on April 17, will both countries find themselves winners? That is what many hope that this first top-level encounter between two old foes will result in.

The idea is that by meeting together on the cricket pitch, India and Pakistan can advance the emerging amity that is growing between them as they settle down to serious unconditional consideration of the long divisive issue of Kashmir. The argument goes that however visceral the rivalries between the two teams and their highly vocal and sometimes fanatical supporters, the peaceful contest of skill with weapons no more deadly than bat and ball, will show both sides that there is more that unites them than divides them.

Cricket devotees around the world are looking forward to an excellent series. The Indian team arrives from a victorious Australian tour while Pakistan has won its last three Test series against Bangladesh, South Africa and New Zealand. It is therefore questionable why Pakistan chose this week of all weeks to test the first of its 2,000-km-range Shaheen II missiles. It did not really matter that Islamabad had been saying for the last fortnight that such a test was imminent and that it seems India and its other neighbors may have been informed. This could prove to be an unnecessarily provocative act. It reminds the people of India and Pakistan on the eve of a peaceable sporting contest between them that there is still a very different and potentially very deadly dispute beyond the cricket grounds.

It is clear that President Musharraf feels the need to reaffirm Pakistan’s military strength. It is also clear that the intended audience for this display is composed of Pakistanis. New Delhi does not need to be reminded that Islamabad is also a nuclear power with the means to deliver warheads over medium range. The Pakistani government is still smarting from the international fallout over the A.Q. Khan affair. The Shaheen II launch, which appears to be have been faultless, will have been designed to restore public confidence in the government.

But the timing may yet prove extremely unfortunate. The reality is that every India-Pakistan cricket match has always had a strong political element. True lovers of the sport regret this. They want to be able to appreciate and applaud cricketing excellence, regardless of which team an outstanding player comes from. Now, however, after the Shaheen launch, Pakistani crowds may be tempted to arrive at the cricket grounds in a triumphant and belligerent mood and be more interested in political demonstrations than the game out on the square.