Lahore : The last ditch efforts to save cricket from more damage and hectic top level contacts between the stakeholders have emerged successful as Pakistan has finally decided to play its scheduled match of T20 world cup against India on February 15 in Colombo , Sri Lanka.
A formal announcement to this effect is likely to be made by PCB in next one or two days.
A number of developments took place during the last ,24 hours relating to Pakistan’s boycott of its match with India set for February 15 in Sri Lanka.
An International Cricket Council (ICC) delegation led by its deputy chair , Usman Khawaja , had rushed to Lahore on February 8 and he held talks with Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief , Mohsin Naqvi , on the issue. Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) , president , Naeemul Islam also joined the consultations held in Lahore .
During the meeting, Pakistan side took a stance that it will not like to see ICC taking any biased decision against Bangladesh just to appease India. It also made clear to ICC team that it would make sure that Bangladesh is not penalized just for asking to shift its match from India to Sri Lanka.
ICC delegation had left Islamabad for ICC headquarters to brief the council members on the outcome of Lahore meeting.
On Monday , BCB also requested Pakistan to play its match with India as per schedule.
Meanwhile , Sri Lankan president made a telephonic call to Prime Minister , Shahbaz Sharif , requesting him to permit Pakistan team to play its February 15 match with India in his country. Pakistan honoured its relationship with Sri Lanka and decided to play its match with India in Sri Lanka on February 15.
In a separate development ICC issued a statement which confirmed that it accepted Pakistan ‘s all demands to end its boycott of match scheduled for February 15.
NEWSMAN reported earlier on Sunday :
In a last ditch effort to save Pak- India match of T 20 world cup , International Cricket Council (ICC) deputy chair , Usman Khawaja, has rushed to Lahore for a meeting with Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman , Mohsin Naqvi, to persuade him for playing Pak – India match scheduled for February 15.
Meanwhile ,Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Naeemul Islam has also landed in Lahore to discuss the fallout of Pakistan’s denial to play with India for T20 world cup match scheduled for February 15 in Colombo , Sri Lanka.
ICC top official and BCB president had meeting with PCB chairman , Mohsin Naqvi , in Lahore on Sunday.
Till filing of these reports, PCB has not made any announcement on the outcome of Lahore huddle . However , it’s pretty clear that Pakistan will not agree to play against India on February 15 unless ICC gives some gurantees for honourable entry to Bangladesh for ICC matches. Pakistan has very clear position on ICC ‘s biased action against Bangladesh for asking it to shift its matches of T20 world cup out of India. Bangladesh had valid reasons to make demand to ICC to fix its matches of T20 out of India in the wake of exclusion of its star cricketer Mustafizur Rehman from Indian Premier League (IPL).
ICC , instead following an unbiased approach and give a lawful approach to Bangladesh’s demand as it did in the case of shifting India ‘s matches out of Pakistan when the former refused to play in Pakistan citing risk to the lives of its players in case they play in Pakistan . ICC favoured India that time and set a precedent , but denied the same to Bangladesh. Pakistan took a legitimate position for Bangladesh and alleged that ICC instead treating all teams with the same stick , was acting as an India stooge. Now when match between India and Pakistan is in danger , ICC has assigned Usman Khawaja to make the last ditch efforts to persuade Pakistan to end boycott and play its match fixed for T20 world cup 2026 in Colombo , Sri Lanka. In the wake of Lahore huddle , a final word from Pakistan is likely to come on Monday.