The reluctance of Bangladesh and India to play in Pakistan
for the upcoming Emerging Teams Asia Cup has bewildered many. For India, their
absence in the meeting to decide the venue has been shown as the cause of their
hesitation to play in Pakistan.
And Bangladesh have shown concern about the security issues
at Pakistan. Meanwhile, the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, Najam
Sethi, has claimed that the government related issues aren’t only exclusive to
Bangladesh and India.
He also revealed that both the Bangladesh and India board
were invited to the meeting in Lahore, but they didn’t show up—and as a result,
Pakistan got selected as the host of the Emerging Teams Asia Cup.
“The ACC Development Committee head and Sri Lanka Cricket
chairman Thilanga Sumathipala tried to convince India and Bangladesh that they
were also invited to attend the meeting [in Lahore] but they did not come. So
the committee, with majority members’ votes, went on to make the decision in favour
of Pakistan,” said Sethi, as quoted by the Dawn.
Sethi then went on to reveal that for Pakistan to play in
the Asia Cup in India, the BCCI will need an approval from the government
regarding the visas of the participating teams—something that holds true even
in Pakistan government’s case.
“I also raised the point that since the Board of Control for
Cricket in India (BCCI) is still awaiting an approval from the government to
hold the Asia Cup and wants the visa clearance of all the participating teams,
the PCB will decide whether to go to India or not because we are also bound by
our government’s clearance,” he added.
“Over this situation, all the member countries decided to
defer the discussion and take a final decision later.”
The final decision will be taken somewhere down the line and the situation will be resolved soon. For the fans in the cricketing fraternity, they can only hope that this saga doesn’t hamper the relations between the teams in the game.
Picture credit: Getty Images
