||Desk Report||

The International Cricket Council (ICC) and the World Cup organizing committee still remain optimistic about the World Cup match between India and Pakistan will be held on its fixed date and venue despite the recent Kashmir's Pulwama terrorist-attack incident, said ICC chief executive David Richardson.

The match between these two nations, which is the tournament’s one of the biggest and breathtaking games, is scheduled to be held on June 16 in Manchester.  

A suicide bomber on February 14 attacked a Central Reserve Police Force convoy in Pulwama and died at least 40 members of Indian forces. A Pakistan-based terrorist group named Jaish-e-Mohammad took the liability of this attack.

However, as a reaction of this incident, a group of India cricket fans demanded to boycott the World Cup match against Pakistan, though the BCCI has not publicly said anything about this. Indians continue their protest with covering and removing the portraits of Pakistani cricket stars from their cricket various stadiums as well as pulling out broadcasting Pakistan Super League.  

David Richardson said to Cricinfo that "no indications" have been sent from either board about the World Cup clash not taking place. "We haven't written to the boards as yet. Our thoughts are with the people that were impacted by the incident. And we are monitoring the situation with our members including the BCCI and PCB. Certainly, there are no indications any of the matches, including the Pakistan-India match, will not be played as planned at the World Cup. But as I say we will continue to monitor the situation," added the chief executive.

The eagerly-anticipated match between these two nations is significantly bigger than the final, and that can be seen in the record demand for the tickets. "That particular game, we had over 400,000 applications for tickets, which is an incredible number. The stadium only holds 25,000 people. So there are a number of disappointed people. That's just locally, but [there is also] the audience globally," said the World Cup tournament director Steve Elworthy.

"To put that [number] in perspective, England vs Australia was around 230-240,000. And the final was around about 260-270,000 applications for tickets. So that gives you a bit of perspective for the demand for this match [India v Pakistan]. It's a big game. They could end up playing each other in the final [too], you never know," Elworthy added.

India and Pakistan lock their horns in total 198 matches including 59 Test, 131 ODIs and 8 T20Is. Among those India won 9 Tests, 54 ODIs and 6 T20Is while Pakistan won 12 Tests, 73 ODIs and 1 T20 games. The rest of the 38 Tests, 4 ODIs and I T20 tied. The other stats: 

Tournament	Matches	India (won)	Pakistan (won)	Draw/Tie/NR
ICC World Cup	6	6	0	0
ICC World T20	5	4	0	1
Champions Trophy	5	2	3	0
Asia Cup	12	7	5	1
Asia Cup T20	1	1	0	0
Asian Test Championship	1	0	1	0