The Pakistani government on Sunday said that it will boycott the men’s Twenty20 world cup match against India to be played on February 15.
Islamabad said in a social media post that it has granted approval for its cricket team to participate in the tournament but it “shall not take the field” in the group stage match against India.
The Pakistani government did not explain why it was boycotting the match.
The International Cricket Council, the governing body of the sport and the organiser of the event, said that while it respects the roles of governments in national policy, the decision is “not in the interest of the global game or the welfare of fans worldwide, including millions in Pakistan”.
“While the ICC awaits official communication from the Pakistan Cricket Board [PCB], this position of selective participation is difficult to reconcile with the fundamental premise of a global sporting event,” the governing body said.
The ICC urged the Pakistan Cricket Board to “explore a mutually acceptable resolution, which protects the interests of all stakeholders”.
India and Sri Lanka are co-hosting the tournament. But Pakistan is scheduled to play all its matches in Sri Lanka as it has been unwilling to travel to India.
Pakistan is in the same group as India, Namibia, the United States and the Netherlands.
By boycotting the match against India, Pakistan will be forfeiting two points.
It is unclear what Islamabad’s position would be if India and Pakistan are to face each other in a knockout match later in the tournament.
On January 24, the International Cricket Council formally replaced Bangladesh with Scotland in the tournament after Dhaka denied its team the permission to travel to India. This came amid diplomatic tensions between New Delhi and Dhaka.
Since early January, the interim government in Bangladesh had been saying the country’s cricket team did not want to travel to India citing what it alleged was a “violent communal policy” of the Indian cricket board.
Pakistan was the only participating country to have backed Bangladesh’s request for its matches to be shifted out of India, ESPN Cricinfo reported.
Pakistan Cricket Board chief Mohsin Naqvi, who is also the country’s home minister, was quoted as saying on January 24 that Islamabad would decide whether the team will participate in the tournament and to what extent.
The tournament is scheduled to begin on February 7.
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