Pakistan will not boycott WC for Bangladesh

Pakistan will not boycott the T20 World Cup hosted by India in support of Bangladesh. A source from the Pakistan Cricket Board, PCB, confirmed the matter to Gulf News, saying Pakistan’s position is not to boycott the World Cup.

The T20 World Cup will begin on February 7. The tournament will be jointly hosted by India and Sri Lanka. Pakistan will play their matches in Sri Lanka. The ICC has scheduled Bangladesh’s matches to be held in India. However, citing security concerns, Bangladesh is unwilling to travel to India to play in the T20 World Cup.

Pakistan had earlier expressed principled support for the Bangladesh Cricket Board’s stance. Pakistani media had claimed that if the ICC failed to arrange a neutral venue for Bangladesh, Pakistan could also consider boycotting the World Cup.

On Monday, Pakistani media outlets Pakistan Observer and Geo Super claimed that the PCB had suspended World Cup preparations in support of Bangladesh. They also reported that training had been halted on the instructions of PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi. However, a PCB official told Gulf News that these claims are baseless.

He said such statements were being made to further inflame the ongoing issue. The source added that there is no reasonable basis for Pakistan to boycott the World Cup. According to him, Pakistan have already played a series in Sri Lanka as part of their World Cup preparations, and therefore the PCB would not be able to justify a boycott decision to the ICC.

Earlier, the BCCI excluded Mustafizur Rahman after he secured a team in the IPL auction. Following that incident, the BCB stated that the environment in India was not suitable for playing the World Cup. Citing security concerns for the Bangladesh team, the BCB wrote to the ICC requesting that Bangladesh’s World Cup matches be shifted to Sri Lanka. However, the ICC is not in favour of relocating the matches.