ISLAMABAD : August 6,2023: Pakistan has decided to send its cricket team to India for the ODI World Cup , maintaining its principled position of keeping the game free from politics.
According to the statement issued by the Foreign Office here on Sunday said Pakistan has consistently said that sports should not be mixed with politics and that is why Pakistan has decided to send its cricket team to India to participate in the upcoming ICC Cricket World Cup 2023.
The spokesperson said that Pakistan believes that the state of bilateral relations with India should not be an obstacle in fulfilling the obligations related to international sports.
The spokesperson added that unlike India’s partisan attitude, Pakistan’s decision shows a constructive and responsible attitude, as India refused to send its cricket team to Pakistan for the Asia Cup.
“However, Pakistan is deeply concerned about the security of its cricket team and we are conveying our concerns to the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the Indian authorities,” the Foreign Office statement said.
The spokesperson expressed hope that complete security will be ensured for the Pakistan cricket team during its visit to India.
This decision has come at a time when a few days ago, Pakistan made the national team’s participation in the One Day World Cup scheduled in India subject to security guarantees.
It should be remembered that in the past few days, the communication director of the Pakistan Cricket Board, Sami-ul-Hasan
It was said that the PCB needs clearance from the Pakistan government for any tour of India, including match venues.
“We are in touch with our government for guidance on the matter,” he said. Went and asked our opinion about it.
Later, in the meeting of the high-level committee formed by the Prime Minister regarding the participation of the national team in the One Day Cricket World Cup, it was decided that the government should raise the issue of security of the national team before the International Cricket Council through the Pakistan Cricket Board. will
According to reliable sources, it was decided in the meeting that there will be no compromise on the security of the national cricket team in India and the team will go to India only after receiving a security guarantee.
Federal Minister for Inter-Provincial Co-operation Ehsan Mazari had said that ICC should give us a security guarantee from India regarding the participation of the national team in the World Cup.
The federal minister had said that we also have objections on some venues and we will ask the ICC to determine these venues.
Prior to the concerns over the venues of the matches, Pakistan had also expressed reservations about playing in Ahmedabad, the hometown of India’s Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The city of Ahmedabad was the epicenter of the worst religious riots of 2002 and at least 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in the said sectarian violence.
Pakistan has to play at least two matches against arch-rivals India in Ahmedabad, but the date of the national team’s match is likely to change.
According to the report, according to the new proposed schedule, the match between traditional rivals Pakistan and India will now be played a day earlier on October 14, which was earlier scheduled on October 15 in Ahmedabad, while the national team’s match against Sri Lanka will be played on October 12. The match which was to be played on will now be played on 10 October.
The BCCI has expressed security concerns regarding the Pakistan-India match on October 15 as the day marks the start of a religious festival in India.
Apart from this, the Bengal Cricket Association has also requested to change the date of the World Cup match between Pakistan and England on November 12 due to a local religious festival on that day and proposed to shift the match to November 11. Who is
Although the International Cricket Council had released the schedule of the One Day Cricket World Cup last month, it has been changed on the request of the Board of Cricket in India (BCCI).
Bilateral cricket has been suspended for a long time due to poor political relations between rival neighboring countries Pakistan and India.
The two countries have played cricket against each other only in multi-team events at neutral venues over the past decade and Pakistan’s participation in the Cricket World Cup in October-November had been shrouded in uncertainty until the Pakistan government’s approval.
