- Friday, February 28, 2025
The Pakistani official was set to raise the issue of India refusing to send its team to Pakistan to play Asia Cup in August-September.
By: Shubham Ghosh
THERE were more questions than answers over Pakistan’s participation in the upcoming 50-over world cup in India starting October as the acting chairman of the country’s cricket board, Zaka Ashraf, was set to push for its matches in the marquee tournament at neutral venues at the International Cricket Council (ICC) meetings in Durban this week, Pakistan’s minister for inter-provincial coordination (sports) Ahsan Mazari said.
“Zaka Ashraf will bring up the issue of why can’t Pakistan’s matches in the World Cup be played at neutral venues when the Indian team can’t travel to Pakistan for the Asia Cup,” he said.
India has refused to travel to Pakistan to play its matches in the Asia Cup scheduled in August-September owing to geopolitical tensions, and following months of speculation around the continental tournament, the Asian Cricket Council confirmed the event will be held in a hybrid model with four games in Pakistan and nine in Sri Lanka, the defending champions, between August 31 and September 17.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) recently told its Indian counterpart — Board of Control for Cricket in India — that the national team’s participation in the world cup is subject to clearance from the country’s government.
Ashraf and Salman Taseer, chief operating officer of the PCB, are currently in South Africa to attend the ICC meetings where they are expected to discuss India’s refusal to send its team to Pakistan on security grounds.
Mazari also claimed that, like him, some other members of the special committee, formed by Pakistan prime minister Shehbaz Sharif to recommend whether the national team should travel to India for the world cup, also felt in their personal capacities that it was time Pakistan took a strong stance on India refusing to tour the country.
Sharif had formed a high-level committee, headed by foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, to decide on the national cricket team’s participation in the World Cup in India.
“I want our World Cup matches at neutral venues if India doesn’t want to send its team to Pakistan for Asia Cup. If they have security problems in Pakistan according to the Indian board, then we can also question the security situation in India,” said Mazari.
Khalid Mahmood, former chief of the PCB, recently slammed the country’s government over forming the committee to decide on whether the Pakistan team should take part in the world cup on the Indian soil.
Pakistan had visited India for a full tour in 1999 when Mahmood was the chief of the board. He criticised the government’s decision and said it made no sense to form such a committee.
“The interesting thing is that no representative of the main stakeholder, the Pakistan Cricket Board is on the committee,” Mahmood said in an interview, Outlook reported.
He advised both the PCB and the Sharif government that it was not the time to link Pakistan’s participation in the world cup to India refusing to travel to Pakistan for the Asia Cup.
