After the Asia Cup concluded on 28th September, the drama that unfolded between the two rival nations, India and Pakistan. From India refusing to take the trophy from the ICC chairman and Pakistan minister Mohsin Naqvi, to Naqvi being adamant on giving the trophy himself rather than handing it to be presented by a neutral official. It has also brought a lot of attention to diplomacy, politics and sport. Thereafter, Michael Atherton commented on the fixtures between the two nations, and the BCCI reacted to it.
Since the Indian team refused to shake hands with the Pakistan team, a lot of criticism was drawn towards the Indian side for bad sportsmanship. While it was done to express solidarity towards the Pahalgam terror victims, the Pakistani team claimed it was a poor display of sportsmanship by the team.
Former cricketer Michael Atherton has advised ICC not to have the India vs Pakistan game till the issue is resolved. 'If cricket was once the vehicle for diplomacy, it is now, clearly, a proxy for broader tensions and for propaganda. There is little justification, in any case, for a serious sport to arrange tournament fixtures to suit its economic needs, and now that the rivalry is being exploited in other ways, there is even less justification for it,' Atherton wrote in his column for The Times.
'For the next broadcast rights cycle, the fixture draw before ICC events should be transparent, and if the two teams do not meet every time, so be it,' he added.
A BCCI official reacted to Atherton’s opinion, stating that it may seem easy to say that, however, there are no easy solutions to the issue. 'It's easy to talk about all this, but will sponsors and broadcasters agree to it? In today's situation, if any major team, not just India, withdraws from a tournament, it will be difficult to attract sponsors, the official told Dainik Jagran.
India and Pakistan meet only in multi-lateral formats like the World Cups, Champions Trophy, Asia Cup, and others. The last bilateral series played between the two rival nations happened in 2013. Since 2013, both teams have played each other in every ICC tournament.
