The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has threated to not travel to India for this year’s ICC World Cup if the BCCI do not allow the Men in Blue to visit Pakistan for the forthcoming edition of the Asia Cup.
India and Pakistan are scheduled to host the World Cup and the Asia Cup respectively this year. And as the tournaments gets closer and closer, the possibility of a major controversy is increasing because of the poor bilateral relations between India and Pakistan.
India have suspended the bilateral ties against Pakistan and have not visited the country since 2008 in the wake of the terror attack in Mumbai. Since the 2012/13 season when Pakistan visited India for a short limited-overs series, both the teams have only played against each other in Asia Cups and ICC tournaments.
While Pakistan did visit India in 2016 for the T20 World Cup, the 2018 Asia Cup had to shifted to UAE from India because of poor bilateral relation. Last year, BCCI secretary and Asian Cricket Council (ACC) chief Jay Shah had announced that India won’t visit Pakistan for Asia Cup 2023.
PCB threatens BCCI over Asia Cup stand:
With the BCCI making its stance clear over Asia Cup, recently reports emerged that Pakistan might still host the tournament but India would play their games at a neutral venue. The report also suggested that the final would also happen outside Pakistan if India qualify for it.
ANI has now reported that PCB has threatened that they won’t visit India for the World Cup if they do not receive the same favour from their Indian counterparts. The report stated that although Pakistan won’t boycott the tournament, they want to play their World Cup matches in Bangladesh or Sri Lanka.
“Yes we are thinking that we will not travel to India for World Cup matches if BCCI didn’t send their team to Pakistan for Asia Cup. We want Sri Lanka Bangladesh to host our matches, we want to play there not in India,” a PCB source told the news outlet.
Although no formal discussion has taken place regarding the issue, the PCB has also pointed out that India not participating in Asia Cup has a potential impact on ICC Champions Trophy 2025, which will also be hosted by them.
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