President Zia ul Haq visited Jaipur in 1986

They resumed 18 years later amidst great fanfare and tours were regularly exchanged thereafter despite instances of spectator violence.

In 1986, Pakistan's president General Zia-ul-Haq visited India to attend a Test match in Jaipur. Cricket diplomacy was considered to have blown away the war clouds hovering over the sub-continent.

The two cricket boards formed an excellent working relationship, and the following year, they co-hosted the 1987 World Cup - the first one played outside England.

But the politicians' attitude changed in the 1990s as plans for cricket tours were spiked, often at the last minute.

Pakistan twice refused permission to its team from touring India, citing security reasons.

An Indian right-wing political group played its part in spoiling the show by digging up the pitch in Bombay's Wankhede Stadium to stop Pakistan from playing there.

Althought bilateral tours were suspended, the two teams often met in cricket's offshore venues. It was the India-Pak rivalry which showered riches on the cricket tournaments in Sharjah.

But exchanges of tours between the two countries remained in a limbo before the cricket boards pulled off a coup.

The opening ceremony of the 1996 World Cup

They bypassed the political route to bring the World Cup back to the sub- continent in 1996, with Sri Lanka as a third joint host.

Wasim Akram's Pakistan team twice visited India during the World Cup, first to participate in the opening ceremony and then for a thrilling quarter-final match against India.

The following year, short visits for one-day competitions were sanctioned between the two countries.

Pakistan played, and won, India's Independence Cup, then Indiia toured Pakistan and played a three-match one-day series.

Test matches were revived after a 10-year gap in 1999 when Pakistan toured India.

It was considered the ideal backdrop to a diplomatic initiative by Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who accepted the invitation of his Pakistani counterpart to take a bus ride to Lahore.

Things were not always rosy during the Test series as spectator violence reared its ugly head again in Calcutta, but most cricket fans were happy at the resumption of tours.

Only a few months later, however, while the World Cup was on in England, the two countries became embroiled in an armed clash in the Himalayan heights of Kargil.

The Indian government then vetoed all cricket matches with Pakistan - except in multi- national tournaments - leading to the current impasse.

It twice refused to allow the Indian team to play in the annual limited-over series in Toronto and also turned down a request from the Board of Control for Cricket in India to play a Test series in Pakistan last year.

Since their 1999 World Cup encounter in Manchester, India and Pakistan have only played each-other once - in Dhaka, Bangladesh, during last year's Asia Cup.

This year, the Indian Sports Ministry banned all visits to non-regular venues such as Sharjah, Toronto and Singapore.

India and Pakistan faced each other in Australia last year

This was a major blow to these venues. which depended on crowd-pulling matches between Pakistan and India for their commercial viability.

India's Sports Minister Uma Bharti said two months ago she had stopped exchange of cricket tours with Pakistan as an "expression of national sentiment".

But her tune changed her tune as cricket seemed to come into the ambit of the political summit between Indian prime minister Vajpayee and Pakistan's president General Pervez Musharraf.

Bharti now says she is not averse to reviving cricket tours if they can help improve relations between the two neighbours.

Although cricket matches are banned, teams in low-key sports like table tennis, volleyball and snooker have faced no problem in crossing the Indo-Pak border.

But the ties will resume in September when the Indian team plays Pakistan in a Test match at Lahore as part of the Asian Test championship, which the Indian government says it will not block.

This will be irrespective of the cricket passing the diplomatic line during the political summit in Agra.

The Asian Test championship might also bring Pakistan to India next year - if the two countries happen to clash in the final.