KARACHI: Pakistan and India are scheduled to meet in a mouth-watering ICC Champions Trophy clash in England next summer but the Indians have managed to cast a cloud of uncertainty over the match because of growing political tensions between the two nations.
According to media reports from across the border, the Indian cricket board (BCCI) has asked the International Cricket Council (ICC) to keep Pakistan and India in separate groups in major tournaments that are run by the game’s governing body.
Quoting unnamed sources, the reports said that Anurag Thakur, the BCCI chief, has written to the ICC to make sure that Pakistan and India aren’t bracketed together in multi-nation tournaments.
The decision comes amid heightened tensions between the two nuclear-armed adversaries over ceasefire violations at the Line of Control (LoC) and Indian atrocities in occupied Kashmir.“Keeping in mind that the government has adopted a new strategy against Pakistan and in view of the public sentiment in the country, we request ICC not to put India and Pakistan in the same pool of the multi-nation tournaments,” Indian media quoted Thakur as saying.
Thakur, according to reports, added if the two countries reach the semi-finals and have no choice but to clash, then this would be another situation.The Indians have already frozen bilateral cricketing relations with Pakistan.
India are scheduled to launch their Champions Trophy title defence against Pakistan when the two Asian powerhouses go head to head at Edgbaston, Birmingham, on June 4, 2017.Defending champions India are seeded second and lead Group B, which also comprises third seeds South Africa, fifth seeds Sri Lanka and eighth seeds Pakistan.
Last week, Thakur stressed that the Indians will not revive cricketing ties with Pakistan.Asked whether India will play with Pakistan given the hostile relations the two nations have at the moment and the rising sentiments against Pakistan in the country, Thakur said, “There are no Tests or bilateral matches scheduled for this year with Pakistan and the question of playing against Pakistan today does not arise.”
While the Indians have taken a hawkish stand on the issue of cricketing relations between the two neighbours, Pakistan’s cricketers have batted for peaceful relations and resumption of bilateral cricket ties with India despite the escalation of tensions between the two nations following the Uri terror attack.
Pakistan’s star players Shahid Afridi and Saeed Ajmal noted that in the past cricket had helped reduce tensions and normalise relations between the two countries.“In the past also having cricket series helped reduced tensions and I firmly believe there should be cricket between the two countries,” Ajmal told reporters in Muzaffarabad.
The off-spinner said whenever he played in India he had got love and appreciation from the Indian people.Afridi took to Twitter to push for a peaceful resolution of the recent hostilities between Pakistan and India.Afridi said Pakistan had always been a “peaceful nation” and that when the two neighbours fought it “affected both”. —with inputs from agencies