DUBAI – Despite efforts from Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI),the Pakistan-India World Cup fixture is under no threat, InternationalCricket Council (ICC) confirmed on Tuesday.
Pakistan is scheduled to play its arch-rivals India in a group-stage gamein Manchester on June 16, which BCCI wanted to boycott due to politicalreasons.
ICC, however, claimed that the governing body cannot back an unfair demand.
ICC Chief Executive Officer Dave Richardson said:
For ICC events, all teams have signed a members’ participation agreement,which requires them to participate in all the matches of the tournament and(in case of) any unjustified non-compliance with that provision, theplaying conditions will kick in and the points will be awarded accordingly(to the other team).
Some prominent names of Indian cricket such as Harbhajan Singh and SachinTendulkar insisted that India should boycott the fixture against Pakistanin the wake of Pulwama terror attack. Following the demand, the SupremeCourt-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) had written to the globalcricket governing body, urging it to boycott countries from where“terrorism emanates”.
The ICC has given a befitting response to BCCI, claiming that sports andpolitics should be kept separate.
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The ICC’s motto is clear. We don’t want to mix politics with sports.
Speaking about resuming bilateral ties between both countries, Dave saidthat ICC has no control over that and it depends entirely on the boards ofboth countries.
When asked about Pakistan objecting to Indian cricket team wearing the armycaps in the third one-day international against Australia in Ranchirecently, ICC Chief said:
In that case, it was a one-off consent. It was granted subject to themessage around the wearing of the caps simply being in sympathy with thepeople who had lost their lives in the (Pulwama) attack and in particularto help them raise funds for the families of the people who had lost theirlives.
