 "The Indian and Pakistani teams led by Rohit Sharma and Babar Azam respectively had faced each other twice in the previous edition of the Men's Asia Cup. AP")
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has reportedly informed the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) of its decision to withdraw from the upcoming Women’s Emerging Teams Asia Cup and the Men’s Asia Cup that are scheduled to take place later this year. The development, reported by The Indian Express, comes at a team when bilateral relations between India and Pakistan are at its lowest following the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam as well as the recent military conflict between the two nuclear-armed nations.
The ACC is currently headed by Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Mohsin Naqvi, who also happens to be the country’s Federal Interior Minister. The BCCI’s move is an attempt to further isolate Pakistan in the cricketing world following the recent hostilities between the two nations.
BCCI conveys ‘sentiment of the nation’ to ACC
“The Indian team can’t play in a tournament that is organised by the ACC whose chief is a Pakistan minister. That’s the sentiment of the nation. We have verbally communicated to ACC about our withdrawal from the upcoming Women’s Emerging Teams Asia Cup, and our future participation in their events too is on hold. We are in constant touch with the Indian government,” a BCCI source was quoted by newspaper as saying.
PCB chief Naqvi had succeeded Sri Lanka Cricket president Shammi Silva as the ACC president last month, with the latter having occupied the post on an interim basis after BCCI secretary Jay Shah was appointed International Cricket Council Chairman, his tenure getting underway on 1 December.
The BCCI’s current stance puts a big question mark on the fate of the Asia Cup, which was originally scheduled to take place in India in the T20 format but was likely to be moved to UAE or Sri Lanka closer to the tournament.
With the Indian team being the biggest draw in the cricketing world, their absence and the lack of a blockbuster India-Pakistan match will likely lead to a mass exit on the part of the sponsors, a majority of whom are Indian, which in turn puts the tournament itself in risk.
Impact Shorts
View AllA similar situation had played out the last time the Asia Cup had taken place, albeit in the ODI format, in 2023. Pakistan was originally scheduled to host the entire event, which would have been the first multi-nation event taking place on Pakistani soil since the 1996 World Cup.
Pakistan, however, ended up hosting a fraction of the games, with a majority of them – including the final – being moved to Sri Lanka after the BCCI’s refusal to send the Indian team across the border.