The T20 World Cup is now just a week away – and we still can’t get a straight answer about whether Pakistan is even going to show up. This is about as irresponsible as you can get. Pakistan are free to pull out if that’s what they want to do – and they’d be well within their rights to keep on posturing if that’s what floats their boat. But when it comes to being a member of the ICC Board, they can’t just hold the whole tournament for ransom. If they’re going to do this, then they’ve got to communicate with a bit more backbone, like a responsible member should.
I’ve been fed some info that suggests Pakistan are actually going to turn up and play. Apparently they’re going to wear black armbands during their match against India as a show of support for Bangladesh. So, they’ll basically be playing the India game under protest. Then there’s another theory that Pakistan might still decide to give the cold shoulder to India – and if that’s the case, they’ll play the rest of the World Cup but just boycott that match. Its getting less and less likely to happen, but you can’t count Pakistan out of the equation entirely. As I’ve said before, Mohsin Naqvi sees himself as a politician before he is a cricket boss, and he’s going to do everything he can to keep in good books back home.
Lots of people – from all sorts of backgrounds – are warning Naqvi that he needs to be careful not to mess this up. It’s being said that big names in Pakistan cricket like Wasim Akram are going totally ballistic over the idea of boycotting the tournament. Legal advice is crystal clear on the matter – if Pakistan decide to boycott, they’re going to lose a whole lot & might even get hit with fines from the ICC. We’re talking up to 400 crore in losses for the PCB. Meanwhile the ICC will lose out on some of the broadcasting revenue, which gets pumped into the coffers of the Associate nations. Im not sure how they’d take it if Pakistan were to pull the plug on the whole thing – I mean theyre basically relying on Pakistan to make this whole thing happen. For India though , this is peanuts compared to what the IPL brings in.
Get this wrong and Pakistan could face the music, and the ICC is ready to pounce. Theyre ready for any eventuality & will come down hard on Pakistan if they try to strong-arm the sport. Naqvi said he’d make his final decision by Friday or Monday, but at this rate theyre running out of time. The thing is, there just isn’t much support for a boycott, and its hard to see why Bangladesh wouldn’t follow suit if they decide to dump Pakistan – not that they have a choice, really, thanks to the financial realities of the situation.
A little side note – Bangladesh are sending a shooting team to India for the Asian Shooting Championship and theyre getting to bring a team of two – one gun and a coach. The question is, what is the big deal about that? How come there arent any security concerns? or is it just that India is only safe for shooting teams not cricket teams, & Asif Nazrul is trying not to make a big deal out of this ? It looks a lot like double standards to me, and bangladesh are getting caught out yet again. We just have to wait and see whats going to happen next with Pakistan.