Pakistan wants its ODI World Cup matches to be moved out of India amid Asia Cup controversy

If the Indian cricket team does not visit Pakistan for the Asia Cup slated for September, Pakistan will not go to India for the ODI World Cup scheduled for October–November. An official present at the meeting revealed that this was the stance taken by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) during the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) board meeting on Saturday.

Officials from the BCCI are dismissive and do not believe that this will cause them to reconsider their minds. The BCCI-PCB dispute will now be discussed when the ACC meets again in March in Dubai, around the time the International Cricket Council (ICC) has its quarterly board meeting there.

The Asia Cup has been the subject of “a positive debate,” according to a statement from the ACC, whose chairman is BCCI secretary Jay Shah. However, it is known that the idea to move the event to a neutral location did not have much support. Even Pakistan’s games at the ODI World Cup in India should be transferred to neutral sites if that is the course of action. Both are international events, according to a PCB spokesman.

Even though this is how PCB intends to argue its case at the ACC and ICC meetings, Indian board officials see this as little more than public posturing and claim that relocating the tournament to a neutral location is imminent, with the UAE being the most probable hosts. The decision-making process should be handled by our government, not the BCCI. The PCB must comprehend it, according to a BCCI executive.

Another BCCI source stated, “Even when Pakistan was given the Asia Cup hosting rights, it was done with the previous understanding both cricket boards have always had, that any visit to the other country would need a government sanction, which we do not have at this moment in time.”

Regarding the PCB’s threat to skip India for the World Cup, BCCI representatives claim that “it is a problem for the ICC to look at” since India is just the host country.

Although the decision has been delayed by a month, BCCI is not worried since the success of an ICC event depends on the Indian cricket industry in terms of media rights and sponsorships.

Inquiries about the situation were not immediately answered by the ICC.

In a statement on Sunday, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said that Sri Lanka had recently visited Pakistan in 2017 and 2019, while Bangladesh will be touring Pakistan in 2020. Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka have confirmed their travels to Pakistan in the 2023–2027 Future Tours Programme (FTP), which has been approved and made public by all ICC Members.

In 2008, India last travelled to Pakistan for the 50-over Asia Cup, when they lost to Sri Lanka in Karachi. Since the white-ball series played in India in 2012–2013, there hasn’t been any bilateral cricket between the neighbours. Since then, Pakistan has travelled for the 2016 T20 World Cup, the last ICC competition that India hosted.