It is fashionable in India to say that the country has been "de-hyphenated" from its crisis-stricken rival, Pakistan. An announcement this week that the Indian Premier League, a dazzling cricket tournament due to be held in India next month, will be shifted to South Africa because of security concerns, is therefore hugely embarrassing. Pakistan is also newly out-of-bounds to foreign cricketers-after Sri Lanka's national team was ambushed there by terrorists last month.rnThe comparison is imprecise: no such atrocity aimed at sportsmen has occurred in India. But the upheaval is particularly painful, for two reasons. First, the ipl, in which eight city-based "franchises" play a shortened and fast-paced form of cricket, is an emblem of Indian aspirations. Its franchises are owned by some of the country's best-known billionaires. Several are co-owned by Bollywood stars. With huge salaries on offer, foreign cricketers have flocked to the ipl.
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