With the Pakistan government taking the decision to not take the field against India in the group stage match of the T20 World Cup in Colombo on February 15 in support of Bangladesh pulling out of World Cup, recent days have seen the International Cricket Council (ICC) warning Pakistan Cricket Board to reconsider the decision. With PCB yet to inform the ICC officially about the decision, the situation remains unclear. Former India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin believes the match will happen with the stakes on the match being high and if Pakistan does not play the match against India, there will be implications, including players not coming to play in Pakistan’s domestic T20 league, the Pakistan Super League. “100 percent, the match between India and Pakistan will happen. I feel that it will happen. The next 3-4 days will see these decisions being overturned. And that’s my hunch and I hope I want to see the India-Pakistan encounter. Because there are a lot of business decisions in this. Pakistan has another problem. There may also be financial loss as you will have to reimburse the broadcasters whatever loss they have incurred. So I think they will have to come for a compromise. The financial thing involved in this will mean that other ICC member countries too will face a loss. In the ICC meeting, all these members will say because of Pakistan, we are getting these losses. PSL is also going to happen. Even in PSL, players can say that we will not come,” said Ashwin on his YouTube channel Ash ki Baat. The Pakistan government had announced about Pakistan not taking the field against India on February 15, ICC had warned about the implications of such a decision. “The ICC hopes that the PCB will consider the significant and long-term implications for cricket in its own country as this is likely to impact the global cricket ecosystem, which it is itself a member and beneficiary of,” read an ICC press release. In the past, teams like Australia and West Indies have boycotted matches in Sri Lanka in the 1996 World Cup followed by teams like England and New Zealand boycotting matches in Zimbabwe in the 2003 World Cup. Ashwin talked about how the boycotts were due to security and travel issues and how the Pakistan boycott of the match against India is different with the ICC, BCCI and PCB earlier coming with a hybrid model for multi-nation tournaments. “We will talk of the 1996 World Cup and also of the 2003 World Cup. Teams refused to travel to Sri Lanka. They fortified the matches. In the 2003 World Cup also, teams forfeited matches due to security and travel. But those are venue based problems. Right now. Pakistan and India will be playing in a neutral venue. There is no problem with the venue also. So after all of this. To say I will not play a particular opponent is just not acceptable in many ways. I hope better sense prevails and these matches do take place,” added Ashwin.
‘Match between India and Pakistan will happen, 100 percent’: Ashwin on boycott of India match in T20 World Cup
