Daily Times

KARACHI: Pakistan batting great Javed Miandad fired a broadside at the Indian cricket board for its refusal to travel to Pakistan for the Asia Cup 2023, saying that India can “go to hell”. Last year in October, Pakistani cricket authorities hinted they may pull out of next year’s World Cup in India, a day after officials there said they would not send a team to the 2023 Asia Cup in Pakistan. Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and Asian Cricket Council (ACC) President Jay Shah had unilaterally announced that India won’t be touring Pakistan for the Asian event. He also said that the BCCI would insist on a neutral venue for the tournament. His announcement surprised Pakistan, with officials warning it could “split” the international cricket community. The PCB said Shah’s comments “can impact Pakistan’s visit to India for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 and future ICC Events in India in the 2024-2031 cycle”. Reacting to the controversy, Miandad said that India can go to hell if they don’t want to tour Pakistan for the Asia Cup. “I have always been saying, if India doesn’t want to come, we don’t care. They can go to hell. We are getting our cricket. It’s ICC’s job to control such things, else there’s no point of having a governing body,” Miandad said while speaking to media persons. “ICC should have one rule for every country. If such teams don’t come, no matter how strong they are, you should remove them. They should play, why aren’t they playing? They are afraid of consequences. Even in our times, they would not play because they were afraid of consequences. India’s crowd is ‘nasty’. Whenever India would lose, no matter against whom, they would burn houses. That’s what they are afraid of.”

Despite being considered one of the sport’s greatest rivalries, India and Pakistan have not met on home soil in any version of the game since 2012, and only play each other in international tournaments on neutral grounds. The ACC will make a final decision on the venue of Asia Cup 2023 in its Executive Board meeting next month. An emergency meeting of ACC was held in Bahrain on Saturday which was also attended by Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) Management Committee Chairman Najam Sethi. Among other issues, the fate of the Asia Cup was also discussed but no decision was made.