'India can go to hell,' says Javed Miandad amid Asia Cup 2023 controversy

Javed Miandad, one of Pakistan's greatest batsmen, slammed the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for its refusal to travel to Pakistan for the Asia Cup 2023, saying that India can "go to hell".

In October 2022, Indian cricket authorities said they would not send a team to the 2023 Asia Cup in Pakistan, prompting Pakistan's cricket authorities to hint they may pull out of the upcoming ICC World Cup, scheduled to be held in India later this year.

BCCI Secretary and Asian Cricket Council (ACC) President, Jay Shah, had unilaterally announced that India won't tour Pakistan for the Asian event. Shah also said that the BCCI would insist on a neutral venue for the tournament.

His announcement caught Pakistan off guard, and Pakistani officials warned that the move could “split” the international cricket community.

The PCB said Shah's comments could "impact Pakistan's visit to India for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 and future ICC Events in India in the 2024-2031 cycle."

Reacting to the controversy, Miandad said: "India can go to hell if they don’t want to tour Pakistan for the Asia Cup."

"I have always been saying, if India doesn't want to come [to Pakistan], we don't care. They can go to hell. We are playing cricket. It's ICC's job to control such things, or there's no point in having a governing body," Miandad said while speaking to media persons.

"ICC should have the same rule for all countries. If such teams don't come, no matter how strong they are, you should remove them.

"They should play, why aren't they playing? They are afraid of consequences."

He further said: "Even in our time, they would not play because they were afraid of consequences. India's crowd is ‘nasty’. Whenever India would lose, no matter against whom, they would burn houses. That's what they are afraid of."

Despite being considered one of cricket's greatest rivalries, India and Pakistan have not met on home soil in any version of the game since 2012, and only play each other in international tournaments on neutral grounds.

The ACC will make a final decision on the venue of Asia Cup 2023 in its Executive Board meeting next month.

An emergency meeting of ACC was held in Bahrain on Saturday which was also attended by Pakistan Cricket Board's (PCB) Management Committee Chairman Najam Sethi. Among other issues, the fate of the Asia Cup was also discussed but no decision was made.