The Asia Cup impasse appears to have been resolved after the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) agreed to Pakistan’s proposal to have matches involving India played at a ‘neutral’ venue — Sri Lanka. For purists, the compromise is still not pretty. Pakistan will only host four of the 13 matches in the tournament, meaning that over two-thirds of the games will be played in Sri Lanka.
India’s refusal to play in Pakistan has little to do with security and almost everything to do with politics — India’s government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has refused to allow the national cricket team to tour Pakistan, and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which is essentially led by Home Minister Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah, has been more than willing to use government policies and its own outsized influence over world cricket to harm Pakistan and its cricket team. Incidentally, apart from being BCCI secretary, Jay Shah is also president of the ACC, meaning that the ACC is literally run by the same guy running the BCCI.
The BCCI’s refusal to tour Pakistan becomes even more pronounced in light of the fact that several national cricket teams have toured the country in recent years, and many top international players have been playing in the Pakistan Super League without incident. But while Pakistan would be well within its rights to demand that India either play, show due cause for its refusal, or otherwise be sanctioned, none of these options would guarantee Indian participation, or compensate for lost potential revenue losses. Still, the economic factors should not pardon India’s behaviour. While PCB chief Najam Sethi can take credit for keeping the tournament on schedule, the end result can justifiably be construed as face-saving for Pakistan, which gets to keep the ‘host’ title, even though most of the tournament will be played in Sri Lanka.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 17th, 2023.
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