ODI World Cup India: Former Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Khalid Mahmood has questioned the country's government for forming a committee to decide upon the cricket team's participation in the ODI World Cup in India. The Pakistan Cricket Team is set to tour India for a global world event for the first time since 2016. However, the PCB has reportedly stated that the Babar Azam team's participation in it is dependent on government approval. The World Cup begins on October 5.
Pakistan PM Shahbaz Sharif formed a high-level committee, headed by Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto to decide upon Pakistan's participation in the marquee event. But Khalid has hit back at his government for the move. "The interesting thing is that no representative of the main stakeholder, the Pakistan Cricket Board is on the committee," Mahmood said in an interview as quoted by PTI.
Khalid further added, "While I agree that there is no justification for India not to tour Pakistan now but this is not the way things are done at the international level. If you say that we are looking at the security situation before deciding to send team to India, that makes sense, but to say openly that if India doesn't come to Pakistan then we will also not send team to India for World Cup, is mixing both things, which we have never done."
Khalid was chairman of PCB earlier and under his tenure, Pakistan toured India in 1999. "When I was chairman in 1999, despite threats from India, we assessed the security situation for our team ourselves, by sending a delegation to India and advised the government we were willing to go to India," he further added.
The committee formed by Sharif will reportedly submit its recommendations to the PM after exploring and discussing the aspects of Pakistan and India relations, the government's policy to keep sports and policy apart from each other and also the situation in the host country India for players, officials, fans and media.
Pakistan will also be sending a security delegation to the venues where Pakistan is set to play their cricket matches at. Babar Azam's men will be their World Cup matches across five venues in India. They will play all the games in Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Chennai and Bengaluru in the ten-nation tournament. The much anticipated India vs Pakistan match is set to take place on October 15 in Ahmedabad.
