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Pakistan-India rivalry risks ‘tit-for-tat’ cricket boycotts of Asia Cup, World Cup tournaments
- India’s refusal to send its national team to Pakistan on security grounds has sparked concerns about the pair’s ‘politicisation’ of cricket
- As the game’s most lucrative market by far, India could decide to ‘force its position’, an analyst notes – potentially splintering the sport
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Pakistan could lose the hosting rights of Asia’s T-20 cricket championship in September after India refused to send a team citing security concerns, raising fears that the neighbours’ political rivalry could trigger subsequent “tit-for-tat” tournament boycotts by two of the top ranked sides in the sport.
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India said threats to the safety of its team amid an ongoing uptick in Taliban terrorist attacks in Pakistan meant that its players could not take part in the Asia Cup, scheduled to be held from September 10 to 28. Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal are the other teams in the tournament.
Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Najam Sethi has said Indian concerns about security are overblown because Pakistan hosted full-fledged multi-format tours with Australia, England and New Zealand last year without incident.
Amid the stalemate in talks, Sethi last month warned of the “very real possibility” that Islamabad could order Pakistan’s team to boycott both the Asia Cup, if it is stripped of hosting rights, and the one-day international World Cup scheduled to be hosted by India in October and November.
The successful hosting of the Asia Cup would have marked Pakistan’s re-emergence as a multinational tournament host for the first time since Taliban terrorists attacked a bus carrying the Sri Lankan national team in March 2009.
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