Asia Cup 2023: Ramiz Raja, the head of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), stated on Friday that Pakistan would think about boycotting the Asia Cup 2023 if their hosting rights are revoked as a result of the Indian team’s refusal to visit them. The Asia Cup would be conducted at a neutral location, BCCI secretary Jay Shah announced earlier in October, entirely dispelling rumours that Team India would travel there for the competition.
Ramiz Raja’s big statement on tournaments
He said, “It is not as if we do not have hosting rights and we are pleading to host it,” Ramiz was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo sidelines of the Pakistan-England Test in Rawalpindi. “We won the rights fair and square. If India does not come, they would not come. If the Asia Cup gets taken away from Pakistan, maybe we are the ones that pull out.”
Ramiz Raja stated earlier in November that Pakistan would not travel to India to compete in the 2023 50-over World Cup if India decided to forego the Asia Cup, which will be held in Pakistan next year.
Making a statement, Ramiz said “Our position is blunt that if they (Indian team) come then we will go to the World Cup, if they do not come then let them do it. Let them play without Pakistan. If Pakistan does not participate in the World Cup scheduled in India next year, who will see it? We will adopt an aggressive approach, our team is showing performance, we have defeated the biggest business-making cricket team in the world, we have played in the final of the T20 World Cup.”
Continuing further, he said “I have always said that we have to improve the economy of Pakistan cricket and that will only happen when our team performs well, we have done it in the 2021 T20 World Cup. Beat India, we beat India in the Asia Cup, Pakistan cricket team has beaten the board of billion dollar economy twice in one year.”
India’s sports minister responds
Anurag Thakur, the Union Sports Minister, announced that India will host the 2023 World Cup with all countries in response to the PCB’s declaration.
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The sports minister stated that India is not afraid of any threats and that they will still hold the competition. Furthermore, according to BCCI President Roger Binny, the decision to tour Pakistan for the Asia Cup 2023 will be made by the government, not the board.
The major cricket competition will be hosted by India for the first time ever in 2023. It co-hosted both the 1987 and 1996 World Cups alongside Pakistan and Sri Lanka. When Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and India co-hosted the event in 2011, the tournament returned to India. In the tournament’s 2011 edition, India also took first place.
Pakistan to host major ICC events in upcoming years
Additionally, Pakistan is slated to host the upcoming Asia Cup in 2023, followed by the ICC Champions Trophy in 2025, thus major events are expected to take place there as well.
A terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in 2009 caused cricket teams to cease visiting Pakistan. Foreign tours didn’t start happening in the nation again until 2015. Since then, Pakistan has hosted bilateral series by teams from Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, Australia, and England, among others.
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