With Pakistan forming a high-level committee to mull over the decision of sending the men’s team to India for the 2023 ODI World Cup and a subsequent tit for tat threat from the country’s sports minister, the controversy over the former champions’ participation in the marquee event has been revived.
BCCI’s insistence that it’s not possible to send Indian team to Pakistan for Asia Cup citing government’s refusal resulted in the continental tournament being held in a hybrid format.
After Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) initially threatened to boycott the ODI World Cup should India not travel across the border, they agreed to the new model.
The schedule for the ODI World Cup was announced late last month with India set to face Pakistan in Ahmedabad on October 15.
Former PCB chairman Khalid Mahmood has questioned the Pakistan government’s decision to appoint the committee claiming it doesn’t have any representation from the cricket board.
“The interesting thing is that no representative of the main stakeholder, the Pakistan Cricket Board is on the committee,” Mahmood was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
“While I agree that there is no justification for India not to tour Pakistan now but this is not the way things are done at the international level,” he added.
As per Mahmood, Pakistan has mixed politics with sports by forming the committee and have contradicted their own claim.
“If you say that we are looking at security situation before deciding to send team to India, that makes sense, but to say openly that if India doesn’t come to Pakistan then we will also not send team to India for World Cup, is mixing both things, which we have never done,” he said.
It was in Mahmood’s tenure that Pakistan made a full tour of India in 1999 and he himself visited the neighbouring country in 1989 as manager of the junior team.
Mahmood also questioned the need for the deep involvement of the government in the PCB affairs and on whether to send the team for the World Cup.
“When I was chairman in 1999, despite threats from India, we assessed the security situation for our team ourselves, by sending a delegation to India and advised the government we were willing to go to India,” he said.
He further advised that the right thing to do is to ensure Pakistan take part in the tournament or risk facing sanctions and damage relations with other cricket boards.
Mahmood said whatever decision Najam Sethi had taken as chairman of the Cricket Management Committee on the Asia Cup should be honoured now.
“I expect Zaka Ashraf to face an uncomfortable situation, when he attends the ICC meetings later this week, because of the formation of this committee and the statement made by minister, Ahsan Mazari,” he said.
With PTI Inputs
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