Not playing Pakistan at the World Cup would be worse than surrender, says Shashi Tharoor

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Member of Parliament from Thiruvananthapuram and former Minister of State Shashi Tharoor through a tweet today said that the BCCI should not back out of the World cup fixture against Pakistan as it would be 'worse than surrender'.

Following the terror attack in Jammu & Kashmir's Pulwama district last week in which 40 CRPF jawans were killed, Indians including former cricketers have asked the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to boycott Pakistan in the World Cup to send out a strong message.

Tharoor though thinks otherwise. He put out a reminder regarding the India-Pakistan match played during the World Cup 1999, incidentally when the two nations were fighting the Kargil War.

"Reminder: at the height of the 1999 Kargil War, India played Pakistan in the cricket World Cup, & won. To forfeit the match this year would not just cost two points: it would be worse than surrender since it would be defeat without a fight," posted Tharoor on his Twitter account along with the scorecard of the aforementioned match.

On the other hand, on Thursday, former Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar felt that if India think boycotting is the way forward, they are well within their rights to do so.

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"The series would have a monetary value of 600 million dollars. Do you think they don't? Of course, they want that. Now speaking on part of their argument, they want to play with Pakistan. Our Pakistan board had mentioned that they want to play a bilateral series and you cannot deny it although the series can be held at a different venue altogether. But they have said that they have a board to run which falls under Supreme Court. That is their argument and that is logical," Shoaib Akhtar was quoted as saying by Times Now.

The BCCI's Committee of Administrators (CoA) will meet today to take a call, even as there are suggestions from within the divided cricket body that nothing should be done that may embarrass the country.

The CoA, which governs cricket in India, will meet today to discuss the issue, sources said.