Panaji, Jun 14 (IANS): If politics divides, cricket "especially an India versus Pakistan match" unites, said Goa Deputy Chief Minister Vijai Sardesai, whose photographs at London's Heathrow airport with newly elected Congress MLA Atanasio Monserrate went viral on Thursday.

Photographs of the politician duo, Sardesai from the ruling Goa Forward and Monserrate from the Congress, exiting the airport with a trolley backed with suitcases had attracted much criticism from social media users in Goa, who took potshots at the two politicians -- at different ends of the political spectrum -- for travelling abroad together.

Reacting to the criticism, Sardesai tweeted: "In Goa, you might find us on opposing sides, trying our best to bowl each other out politically, but when #India takes on #Pakistan in Manchester on the 16th, we'll both be together on the side of our great nation, rooting for our boys from the stands! #WorldCup 2019".

Monserrate won a bitter contest in the May 19 assembly bypoll for the Panaji seat. Incidentally, he was a part of Sardesai's Goa Forward, before he quit the regional party on bypoll eve to join the Congress.