Asia Cup dispute

A Cricket World Cup boycott is looking more and more likely as India continues to politicise the sport. PCB Chairman Najam Sethi confirmed that a boycott is being considered after the long and unnecessary saga over relocating some Asia Cup matches to accommodate India. The problem started a few months back when India, claiming security concerns, refused to tour Pakistan for the Asia Cup in September. The PCB floated some alternatives to keep the tournament on track, most notably shifting India’s matches to the UAE. But India has still not accepted that proposal, and Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have since said they don’t want to be forced to travel between Pakistan and the UAE for individual matches.

While Bangladesh and Sri Lanka’s unwillingness to cooperate is unfortunate, we can understand that they feel having to travel that much could leave their players unsettled and tired, and thus at a competitive disadvantage. Under the circumstances, if India doesn’t want to tour Pakistan, it should quit the tournament, rather than order the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) to move the tournament from Pakistan. India’s willingness to allow its other sports teams to tour Pakistan would imply that PM Narendra Modi’s government either doesn’t care if their kabaddi team is killed by terrorists, or that security is just an excuse to embarrass Pakistan and inflict financial harm on the PCB.

The PCB must stand firm and stop caving in to Indian demands, even if it means boycotting the World Cup. Instead of being soft with tit-for-tat threats such as demanding Pakistan’s World Cup matches to be scheduled at neutral venues, the board should also investigate legal options it can pursue against the ACC and, if necessary, the International Cricket Council (ICC), for clearly acting as agents of the political government in New Delhi, rather than stewards of the game. Even if such efforts fail, they would confirm the widely held belief that the Board of Control for Cricket in India, rather than the ICC, is the game’s governing body.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 17^th, 2023.

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