By Jet fighters flew over a packed stadium in southern Pakistan, streaking the sky with the green and white of the national flag and garlanding a sporting spectacle the country has been waiting to host for a generation.
The two teams strutted out into the National Stadium in Karachi to a huge roar from the crowd, getting underway the Champions Trophy tournament that cricket-obsessed Pakistan hopes will cement its rehabilitation into the cricketing world.
Long roiled by Islamist militancy and terror attacks – including a deadly attack on a visiting Sri Lanka cricket team in 2009 – Pakistan has for years been off the roster for international tournaments.
Now world cricket powerhouses like Australia, Bangladesh, England, New Zealand and South Africa are here for around three weeks of cricket, and fans are ecstatic.
Authorities in Karachi were taking no chances during the opening match between Pakistan and New Zealand on Wednesday.
Snipers were in position on rooftops along routes to the stadium. Commandos and SWAT teams manned checkpoints around the sprawling port city.
Farah Qadri spent hours under the blazing sun passing through security checkpoints outside the stadium, but said the “surreal” experience of seeing the opening game of the tournament was worth the wait.
There were people from “all walks of life huddled together, cheering, chanting and dancing nonstop,” she told CNN.
The Champions Trophy “is a huge positive for the entire country,” said Basit Ali, 36, who watched the opening match from a teashop in Peshawar near the Afghan border.
“I pray that Pakistan successfully defends its title and brings joy to the nation.”
Cricket is almost a second religion in Pakistan, with superstars plastered on billboards, and the national team the objects of intense pride – or anger – depending on results.
But the last time Pakistan hosted an international tournament was in 1996.
That’s meant an entire generation in the nation of around 220 million has come of age without experiencing the thrill of playing host to the world’s best.
Excitement mingled with nervousness for Farees Shah, a cricket podcast host who also joined the throng of fans in the Karachi stadium on Wednesday.
It’s like “you’re the biggest party animal out there but after ages you’re hosting the party, so you just want to make sure everything goes smoothly,” he told CNN.
Events off the cricket pitch rarely go smoothly in Pakistan.
Former prime minister – and World Cup-winning cricketer – Imran Khan is currently in jail for corruption and revealing official secrets – charges he says are a plot by rivals to keep him from returning to office.
The country’s economy is tottering and reliant on IMF bailouts, while the powerful military is entrenched in every aspect of life, according to its critics.
A long-running Taliban insurgency has killed tens of thousands, while authorities are also battling a festering and bloody separatist movement in the resource-rich southwest.
Cricket has been caught up in the violence too.
In 2009 Sri Lanka’s cricket team was attacked by militants on their way to a match in the northeastern city of Lahore.
The gunmen sprayed the team bus with bullets as it neared the stadium, killing eight people – six policemen and two civilians – and leaving several of the visiting players wounded, sending shock waves across the cricket world.
Pakistan was subsequently stripped of hosting rights for the 2009 Champions Trophy.
A later militant attack caused the country to be ruled out of co-hosting the 2011 World Cup.
Hosting the Champions Trophy is a “milestone moment” for Pakistan, the chairman of Pakistan’s Cricket Board (PCB) Mohsin Naqvi told CNN in a statement.
The tournament is an “opportunity to reaffirm Pakistan’s status as one of the most passionate and influential cricketing nations, fully capable of staging multi-nation tournaments at the highest level,” he said.
Authorities say they are pulling out all stops.
The national airline is putting on special flights to ferry the visiting teams around the country to their matches.
Every player and match official has been given “state guest status” according to authorities – the equivalent of being treated like a visiting head of state.
There is one hiccup, however.
India, the top-ranked cricket team in the world – and Pakistan’s fiercest rival – isn’t coming to the party.
Cricketing officials there have cited “security reasons” for refusing to come to Pakistan.
India will play its matches instead in the United Arab Emirates.
That decision has dampened the mood of fans globally and enraged Pakistani ones, denying the hosts the chance to face off against their neighbor and biggest rival on home turf.
Since independence from Britain in 1947, nuclear-armed India and Pakistan have fought three wars and introduced heavy restrictions on exchanges of goods and people, despite their closely entwined shared history and culture – and love of cricket.
India-Pakistan matches are billed as one of the greatest sporting grudges in the world and attract mega sponsors and hyper fanfare.
Around 400 million people are estimated to have tuned in to watch Pakistan beat India in the final of the last Champions Trophy in 2017.
Viewing figures for the latest Super Bowl were paltry in comparison, at around 127 million.
Naqvi, chairman of the PCB, called India’s absence “a loss for spectators, broadcasters, media, and the tournament itself.”
“But it is also a missed opportunity for Indian players to experience the warmth, love, and hospitality that Pakistan has always extended to visiting teams.”
CNN has contacted India’s cricket board for comment.
For cricket fan Basit Ali in Peshawar, Sunday’s upcoming clash with India will be the highlight of the tournament, even if it does take place in Dubai.
“The real excitement will be when Pakistan faces India. I can’t wait for that!”
Farees Shah, the podcast host, told CNN he wanted “nothing more than Pakistan cricket to do well.”
“It is equally important to me that the tournament goes effortlessly.”
