Islamabad, Pakistan – Pakistan have forged doubts over their participation within the T20 World Cup after Bangladesh have been kicked out of the event by the Worldwide Cricket Council (ICC).
Bangladesh, whose spot within the upcoming world event was confirmed in June 2024, have been expelled from it on Saturday after a weeks-long deadlock with the ICC over the demanded relocation of their fixtures from India to Sri Lanka. The ICC gave Bangladesh’s berth to Scotland, the following best-ranked T20 workforce.
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The ICC was accused of practising “double requirements” in its extraordinary transfer to oust a full member nation on the premise of a logistical impasse.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) swiftly threw its weight behind Bangladesh and stated it is not going to make a “last resolution” on its workforce’s participation till subsequent week.
PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi met Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday to debate the difficulty however didn’t make clear whether or not Pakistan would journey to the event, which begins on February 7.
“It was agreed that the ultimate resolution will likely be taken both on Friday or subsequent Monday,” Naqvi, who can also be Pakistan’s inside minister, stated in a put up on X.
All of Pakistan’s World Cup matches have been scheduled in Sri Lanka due to the fraught relations between New Delhi and Islamabad.
What’s the Bangladesh-India T20 World Cup controversy all about?
The controversy involving the three South Asian nations started three weeks in the past when the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) requested that every one of its workforce’s matches scheduled to be performed in India be shifted to Sri Lanka. It cited considerations over its gamers’ security and safety.
It adopted the abrupt elimination of Bangladeshi quick bowler Mustafizur Rahman from his Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise, the Kolkata Knight Riders, upon a directive from the Board of Management for Cricket in India (BCCI).
The rationale the BCCI gave was “developments throughout”. That may discuss with the deteriorating ties between Dhaka and New Delhi since August 2024 when Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted from energy and fled to India, the place she continues to reside.
Bangladesh reasoned that if considered one of their gamers was not secure in India, it couldn’t jeopardise the protection of your complete squad and help workers.
Nevertheless, the ICC, presently led by Jay Shah, the son of Indian House Minister Amit Shah and an in depth ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, rejected the relocation request. The governing physique stated there have been no “credible” or “verifiable” threats to the Bangladeshi workforce.
After an additional back-and-forth between the BCB and the ICC – throughout which neither celebration moved from its unique place – Bangladesh have been ousted from the event and changed by Scotland.
Why has the ICC been accused of ‘hypocrisy’?
In late 2024, the ICC brokered a three-year settlement between India and Pakistan that allowed each nations to play their matches at impartial venues every time their neighbour hosted a world event.
The choice got here after India’s refusal to journey to Pakistan for the ICC Champions Trophy over safety considerations raised by the Indian authorities. India performed all their matches, together with the ultimate, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
For the ICC Ladies’s World Cup 2025, cohosted by India and Sri Lanka, Pakistan performed their fixtures in Sri Lanka and are scheduled to do the identical on the ICC Males’s T20 World Cup 2026.
BCB President Aminul Islam pointed at this settlement and accused the ICC of “hypocrisy” for dismissing an analogous request from Bangladesh.
Whereas the BCB and the ICC have been caught in an deadlock, the PCB determined to partake within the dispute by supporting Bangladesh’s request for a impartial venue.
At an ICC board assembly known as to debate the difficulty final week, Pakistan have been the one full member nation to help Bangladesh’s place. Different board members endorsed the concept of changing Bangladesh in the event that they refused to play in India.
Why have Pakistan turn out to be concerned on this affair?
Whereas the controversy has to do with sport, the underlying tensions are deeply political, and the three nations share decades-long fractured ties.
After the 1947 partition of British India, India emerged as an impartial state whereas a Muslim-majority Pakistan was created with jap and western wings separated by greater than 2,000km (1,300 miles).
Lower than 25 years later, the jap wing broke away after a bloody battle to turn out to be Bangladesh. Indian troops performed a decisive function in supporting Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh’s founder and Hasina’s father.
Quick ahead to 2024 – the once-close ties between India and Bangladesh have been fractured with Hasina’s ouster, and the ties between Bangladesh and Pakistan, beforehand close to all-time low, improved quickly.
In order Bangladesh have been locked in negotiations with the ICC, Naqvi, Pakistan’s cricket chief, publicly criticised the governing physique.
“You’ll be able to’t have double requirements,” Naqvi stated on Saturday.
“You’ll be able to’t say for one nation [India] they’ll do no matter they need and for the others to should do the exact opposite. That’s why we’ve taken this stand and made clear Bangladesh have had an injustice finished to them. They need to play within the World Cup. They’re a serious stakeholder in cricket.”
How have Pakistan reacted, and what can they do subsequent?
Inside days of the BCCI’s resolution to take away Mustafizur from the IPL, the PCB reacted by providing the star Bangladeshi bowler an choice to register for the Pakistan Tremendous League, the nation’s premier franchise T20 event.
Regardless of reviews in Pakistani media that the PCB might pull out of the T20 World Cup, Naqvi has not indicated that is likely to be the case.
There has additionally been hypothesis that Pakistan might forfeit their match towards India on February 15 in Colombo as a symbolic gesture in help of Bangladesh.
With a last resolution anticipated on Friday or Monday, the continued uncertainty might disrupt Pakistan’s preparations for the event. They’re scheduled to play the event’s opening recreation on February 7 towards the Netherlands.
Ehsan Mani, former chairman of the ICC and the PCB, has warned the PCB towards withdrawing from the World Cup.
“This brings politics into the sport, and I’ve all the time advocated that the 2 must be stored strictly separate,” he advised Al Jazeera.
What occurs if Pakistan withdraws from the T20 World Cup?
The rivalry between Pakistan and India on the political pitch has lengthy spilled over onto the cricket area, which has more and more turn out to be a proxy battleground, particularly since tensions escalated drastically after a four-day navy confrontation between the 2 neighbours in Might.
India’s refusal to journey to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy, which they went on to win unbeaten within the UAE, additional strained relations.
When the groups met once more on the Asia Cup in September, Indian gamers declined to shake fingers with their Pakistani counterparts. After a tense final, which India gained, the Indian workforce additionally refused to just accept the trophy from Naqvi, who additionally heads the Asian Cricket Council.
Ali Khan, a professor at Lahore College of Administration Sciences and writer of Cricket in Pakistan: Nation, Id, and Politics, described Pakistan’s help of Bangladesh as “completely the principled stance to take”.
“If India and Pakistan can each be accommodated in related conditions, then why not one other full ICC member [Bangladesh]? Additionally it is essential for Pakistan to face up for the best way the ICC is working now,” he advised Al Jazeera.
Khan cautioned, nevertheless, that threatening a boycott was a step too far.
“It veers in direction of performative and petty point-scoring then. Pakistan ought to proceed to deliver up the inequity throughout the ICC at each assembly forcefully, persuade and disgrace others to talk up as effectively. That requires robust diplomacy moderately than chest-thumping.”
In the meantime, veteran Indian cricket author Sharda Ugra stated Pakistan’s intervention appeared geared toward constructing an alliance.
“If Pakistan does again out of the event, it should clearly disappoint the cricket group,” she stated.
Ugra believes Naqvi’s transfer is geared toward “annoying the ICC and the BCCI and placing them on the again foot”, particularly as he’s additionally Pakistan’s inside minister.
“But when Pakistan pulls out, it might have monumental penalties.”
How will this controversy impression cricket?
Khan argued that whereas the ICC has taken principled positions up to now, together with the reintegration of apartheid-era South Africa, its stability has shifted.
“Sadly, India’s monumental monetary clout in cricket has unbalanced the physique a lot that it has merely turn out to be a mouthpiece for the Indian authorities with different member nations additionally answerable for this by means of their timid acceptance of Indian diktat,” he stated.
Ugra additionally criticised the England and Wales Cricket Board and Cricket Australia for his or her respective silence on the matter.
“Bangladesh is a part of the ICC group and a full member, and these two boards ought to have performed their half in making it extra equitable,” she stated. “It’s like they’re all pliant to BCCI and performing as in the event that they haven’t any energy.”
