How cricket is helping change the world

A social media tool for cricket fans to support their teams during the World Twenty20 has evolved into a movement for peace and improved relations between Indians and Pakistanis.

Cricket supporters around the world had been adding a 'frame' to their Facebook profile picture to show support for their team. But in India and Pakistan, something different started happening.

Pakistanis started displaying the India theme on their profile picture, and Indians were doing the same with the Pakistan theme. The campaign quickly became known as 'Profiles For Peace' and gained the attention of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

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"Fans from India and Pakistan are doing something different," Zuckerberg wrote this week to his 53 million social media followers around the globe.

"Hundreds of thousands of Indian cricket fans are putting the Pakistani frame around their picture. And Pakistani fans are doing the same thing – showing support for India.

"When we designed the profile frames feature, we just wanted to help people show support for their favourite teams or a cause they believe in. But this story shows that the more connected we are, the more we realize that what unites us is more important than what divides us."

Early adopters of the Profiles for Peace campaign were Pakistani journalist Nudrrat Khawaja and her friend Samir Gupta from India.

"Here was my friend Nudrrat making a public statement that just bowled me over. I decided to join her and changed my profile picture to support the Pakistan cricket team. Within twelve hours, I saw dozens of Pakistani Facebook friends changing their profile picture to support the Indian cricket team," Gupta wrote on the website of Aman Ki Asha, a platform to help foster relations between citizens of the two countries.

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Many cricket fans from both countries have adopted the frames from their opposing supporters ahead of the meeting between India and Pakistan at Kolkata's Eden Gardens.

The clash will be the eighth-time the two sides have met in T20 cricket, with India holding the statistical edge with five wins to one, including victory in the 2007 World T20 final.

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But India spinner Ravi Ashwin was quick to play down the advantage ahead of the match, a must-win clash for India if they are to avoid a sudden death run to the finals.

"I don't think anyone has an edge, if we can race up and try and play to our potential we can win … we are used to playing a lot of India, Pakistan games and every game that India plays is a pressure game," Ashwin said.

"This rivalry is huge; it's probably bigger than the Ashes."

The two-sides last met at a world event in last year's ICC Cricket World Cup with 41,587 fans flocking to the Adelaide Oval to see India defeat their rivals by 76-runs.