Pakistan-India World Cup match to take place as scheduled: ICC

LONDON (Agencies): International Cricket Council (ICC) said on Tuesday that there is no threat to the India-Pakistan World Cup match scheduled to take place in a group game in Manchester on June 16, reported Indian media.

The chief executive officer (CEO) Dave Richardson said: “for ICC events, all teams have signed a members’ participation agreement, which requires them to participate in all the matches of the tournament and (in case of) any unjustified non-compliance with that provision, the playing conditions will kick in and the points will be awarded accordingly (to the other team),” Richardson said.

The answer was in the backdrop from the rising demands from India to boycott Pakistan at the 2019 World Cup in the wake of the Pulwama terror attack, in which more than 40 paramilitary troopers were killed by a Kashmiri freedom fighter.

Following the demand, the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) had written to the global cricket governing body, urging it to boycott countries from where “terrorism emanates”.

With Pakistan objecting to the move in the ODI series against Australia where the Indian team wore camouflage caps as a mark of respect to the martyred CRPF personnel during the third ODI against Australia in Ranchi recently, Richardson said the BCCI took prior permission from for it and there was no politics involved.

“In this case, it was a one-off consent. It was granted subject to the message around the wearing of the caps simply being in sympathy with the people who had lost their lives in the (Pulwama) attack and in particular to help them raise funds for the families of the people who had lost their lives,” the ICC CEO said.

“The ICC’s motto is clear. We don’t want to mix politics with sports,” he said. He, however, said the resumption of bilateral ties between India and Pakistan depended entirely on the boards of the two countries.