New Delhi: India has mixed politics with cricket by refusing to travel to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy and the International Cricket Council needs to show who’s the boss by taking a free and fair stance on the matter, Shahid Afridi said on Thursday.
Stuck between an unwilling India and an adamant Pakistan who refuse to accept a hybrid model to host the tournament, the ICC has missed the contractual stipulation to announce match schedule before at least 90 days of its beginning.
The governing body has called for an executive committee meeting on Friday where it could decide the way forward to end the impasse over staging of the tournament, which is set to begin on February 19 next year.
Before the all important meeting, where ICC could ask its members to vote to arrive at a decision, former Pakistan skipper Afridi urged for a fair conclusion of the stand-off and not take a decision loaded towards India.
“By intertwining politics with sports, the BCCI has placed international cricket in a precarious position. Fully support the PCB’s stance against the hybrid model – especially since Pakistan (despite security concerns) has toured India five times, including a bilateral white-ball series, post-26/11. It’s time for the ICC and its Board of Directors to uphold fairness and assert their authority,” Afridi wrote on X.
Pakistan say no to hybrid model
The Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Mohsin Naqvi has maintained that it isn’t willing to accept a hybrid model of shifting India’s matches to the UAE.
The PCB has already conveyed it to the ICC and expect it not to be discussed at Friday’s meeting. “The PCB has a few hours back told the ICC that a Hybrid Model is not acceptable to them,” a source told PTI on Thursday.
“I can confirm initially the PCB had looked at the possibility of a Hybrid model on the condition that if India can’t play in Pakistan, then in future there would be Hybrid models in all ICC events in India right until 2031 (ODI World Cup in India and Bangladesh) as Pakistan would not go and play in India.”
Former Pakistan skipper Afridi urged the ICC to take a fair decision on the stand-off over Champions Trophy and not take a decision loaded towards India. Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
