NEW DELHI - CRICKET is one of the few things India and Pakistan agree on. But with New Delhi accusing Islamabad of not curbing Pakistani-based terrorists blamed for the Mumbai attack, India canceled a cricket tour to Pakistan - a clear sign of a freeze in relations.

In the decades since gaining independence from Britain in 1947, Pakistan and India have fought three wars and teetered on the brink several more times. Yet cricket is a national obsession for both countries and has helped thaw tensions.

India's national cricket team went to Pakistan in 2004 for the national teams' first full series of matches in 14 years, a trip hailed as an optimistic sign as the nuclear-armed rivals got a fledgling peace process going.

That has been undone by last month's Mumbai assault, which left 164 people and nine of the 10 attackers dead. Relations are strained again and the peace process is on ice.

In another sign of worsening tensions, Pakistan summoned an Indian envoy on Thursday to formally complain about violations of its airspace over the weekend - an abrupt about-face after earlier playing down the alleged breaches by Indian aircraft as not deliberate.

India's deputy ambassador, Manpreet Vohra, said he would pass along the complaint.

But, Vohra said: 'Our government, after holding an inquiry, has already said that there was no airspace violation from our side, and I reiterated this stance today.'

India alleges a Pakistan-based Islamic group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, sponsored the attacks on hotels, a train station and markets in the country's financial capital and has demanded that Islamabad move against the militants.

Pakistan has arrested some suspects and clamped down on a charity, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, purportedly linked to the previously outlawed Lashkar. But officials say that to do more, they need evidence of the group's complicity - a demand India says it cannot fulfill until the investigation is over.

Amid the ill feelings, cricket became the first diplomatic casualty.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India called the tour 'not feasible in the prevailing circumstances.' India cricket player Anil Kumble said it a good decision. 'We had known that we won't be traveling to Pakistan under the present situation,' he told the Press Trust of India news agency.

But Pakistanis expressed disappointment.

'It's a big disappointment and a setback to Asian cricket,' former player Sarfraz Nawaz said in Islamabad.

'The terrorism acts could happen anywhere in the world, but that does not mean that sports activities should come to a halt.' -- AP