The PCB received another criticism from Iceland Cricket because they suspected Pakistan would boycott the upcoming T20 World Cup which begins on February 7. The Pakistani government will make its decision public on Friday or Monday following a meeting between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and PCB chief Mohsin Naqvi. The International Cricket Council (ICC) removed Bangladesh from the tournament last week and replaced them with Scotland. Bangladesh maintained its position of not sending a team to India for the T20 World Cup because of security concerns.
Iceland Cricket made a comedic response to the PCB uncertainty by announcing their readiness to replace Pakistan if the 2009 champions decide to withdraw from the tournament.
Pakistan needs to make their T20 WC participation decision because we really need them to do so. The 2nd of February flight cancellation will allow us to depart immediately but our Colombo arrival time for 7th February presents serious scheduling problems. Our opening bat is an insomniac!” Iceland Cricket wrote in a post on X.
The account used a screenshot of travel plans from Keflavik to Colombo to demonstrate the absurdity of emergency travel arrangements which require a last-minute decision.
The Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Naqvi announced after his meeting with Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif that all available options remained open because the final decision would be made by either Friday or next Monday.
Pakistan has been protesting ICC’s decision to replace Bangladesh with Scotland after the Bangladesh Cricket Board and interim government insisted they will not play T20 World Cup matches in India over security concerns.
The Pakistan cricket team announced its squad for the 20-team tournament which contains all players except one who will compete against Australia.