The head of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), Ramiz Raja, said on Friday that Pakistan could consider withdrawing from the 2023 Asia Cup if their tournament hosting rights are revoked due to the Indian team not traveling to their country. Earlier in October, BCCI Secretary Jay Shah completely rejected Team India’s speculation that it would travel to Pakistan for the event, saying the Asia Cup would be held at a neutral venue.
“It’s not like we don’t have hosting rights and we’re begging to host it,” Ramiz told ESPNCricinfo sideline of the Pakistan-England test in Rawalpindi. “We won the law scholarship. If India doesn’t come, they wouldn’t come. If the Asia Cup is taken away from Pakistan, we might be the ones to pull out,” he added.
Earlier in November, Ramiz Raja said that if India chooses not to participate in the Asia Cup to be held in Pakistan next year, Pakistan will also not travel to India to participate in the 50-over World Cup 2023.
“Our position is blunt that if they (the Indian team) come we will go to the World Cup, if they don’t come then let them. Let them play without Pakistan. If Pakistan does not participate in the World Cup scheduled in India next year, who will see it? We will take an aggressive approach, our team shows performance, we beat the biggest corporate cricket team in the world, we played in the final of the T20 World Cup,” said Ramiz. That is what the Pakistani media said on Friday.
“I have always said that we need to improve the economy of Pakistan cricket and that will only happen if our team performs well, we did that in T20 World Cup 2021. Beat India, we beat India in Asia Cup, Pakistan cricket team has beaten the board of directors of the billion-dollar economy twice in one year,” he added.
Following Shah’s statement about holding the Asia Cup in a neutral venue, PCB issued a statement saying, “The overall impact of such statements has the potential to split Asian and international cricketing communities and could impact the Pakistan’s visit to India for the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup. and future ICC events in India in the 2024-2031 cycle.”
Following PCB’s statement, Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur said India will host the 2023 World Cup with all teams.
The sports minister said India is not afraid of any threat and it will not stop them from hosting the tournament.
“It is an internal matter of BCCI and it will handle the problem smartly. We have not done anything wrong when we organized international tournaments before. We have successfully organized a World Cup before and all teams were happy to participate. We will organize the tournament next year organize and all teams will play in it,” Thakur had said in October.
BCCI President Roger Binny also said that a tour of Pakistan for the 2023 Asia Cup is not the board’s decision, but they will rely on the government’s decision. “That’s not our decision. We can’t say where our team should go. We need government approval if we leave the country, or other countries come here. We can’t make that decision on our own, we have to rely on about the government,” Binny had said.
Afterwards, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma also said that the Men in Blue would focus on the T20 World Cup and abide by the guidelines of the top cricket board in India, citing BCCI Secretary Jay Shah’s comments on the journey of India to Pakistan for 2023 Asia Cup. .
“My focus is on the World Cup. Whatever the BCCI decides, we will abide by it,” Rohit had said at a press conference ahead of the high-voltage clash against Pakistan.
In 2023, India will single-handedly host the major cricket event for the first time. It co-hosted the 1987 World Cup with Pakistan and the 1996 World Cup with Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The tournament returned to India in 2011 when it hosted alongside Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. India also emerged victorious in the 2011 edition of the tournament.
Flagship tournaments would also be held in Pakistan as the country will host the upcoming edition of the Asia Cup in 2023, followed by the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy.
Cricket teams stopped touring Pakistan after a terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team in 2009. It was not until 2015 that international tours resumed in the country. Since then, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, Australia and England are some of the teams that have toured Pakistan for bilateral series.
(This story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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