 "India and Pakistan could actually play against each other multiple times in Asia Cup 2025. Image: ACC video")
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has defended its stance of not boycotting the Pakistan match in the Asia Cup 2025 despite a vast majority of Indian fans calling for a complete boycott of the neighbouring nation in cricket across all tournaments. The Sunday match between India and Pakistan in the Asia Cup 2025 in Dubai will be played just a few months after the ghastly Pahalgam terror attack in which 25 Indian citizens lost their lives.
The pain of losing their fellow citizens is still fresh in the memories of Indian cricket fans, who have taken to social media to demand the boycott of the Pakistan match . However, the BCCI is merely following the Indian government policy, which dictates that the country will not engage in bilateral sporting tournaments with Pakistan, but it will also not boycott matches against their arch-rivals in multilateral tournaments.
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With India hoping to host the 2030 Commonwealth Games and the Olympics in 2036, the country does not want to attract any negative criticism, which can jeopardise its ambition to lift the sporting landscape in India to the next level.
BCCI defends decision to play vs Pakistan
Defending BCCI and its policies of not boycotting Pakistan in the Asia Cup 2025, the board secretary Devajit Saikia told the Hindustan Times that if India wishes to host major multinational tournaments in the future, then it cannot boycott the match against Pakistan.
“We have decided to participate in the Asia Cup because it is a multinational competition. It is just like an Olympic, any FIFA tournament, AFC tournament, or International Athletics Tournament,” Devajit Saikia told HT.
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More Shorts“So we cannot boycott the multinational tournament because if we boycott this tournament, that will bring a lot of negativity for all our future endeavours of hosting any multinational tournament in the country,” he was quoted as saying.
“So therefore, as it is a multinational competition, we are participating because we do not have a direct call or direct decision whether to play or not to play."
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Devajit Saikia added that BCCI can take decisions as per its wishes when it comes to bilateral cricket tournaments, but multilateral tournaments are a different matter altogether.
“Had it been a bilateral tournament, we could have always said that we would not play against any hostile country. And so far as Pakistan is concerned, we are not playing any bilateral tournament since 2012-13 onwards,” Saikia added.
Olympics bid forcing India to play vs Pakistan?
Further explaining why BCCI agreed to play against Pakistan in Asia Cup, Saikia said, “Suppose India is not participating in an AFC football tournament or a FIFA qualifying tournament or the Davis Cup, or the Thomas Cup, then in future, if we want to host a Commonwealth tournament in India or the Olympics in the 2030s, all these factors will take an adverse position for India to bid for those tournaments to be held in India.
“And if the Indian association is barred, suppose India decides not to play in an international athletics tournament, tomorrow the Indian Athletic Association will be barred or there will be fines,” he added.
It has to be noted that India has already made initial bids to host the Commonwealth Games 2030 and the Olympics 2036.