Pakistan evaluating World Cup participation in India
Amid doubts of a pullout from ICC World Cup 2023, the Foreign Ministry has said it was “evaluating all aspects” of Pakistan’s participation in this year’s 50-overs mega event in India.
Despite the stalemate over the venue for Asia Cup 2023 has ended, doubts continue to cast a shadow over Pakistan’s involvement in the World Cup 2023 in October-November.
India’s stubbornness over Pakistan’s hosting of Asia Cup 2023 kept its hanging in the balance for over a month, as it refused to visit the country for the regional cricket tournament. In response, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had threatened to pull out of World Cup 2023, scheduled in India.
The matter was resolved as the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) greenlit PCB’s hybrid model for Asia Cup earlier this month, while the foreign ministry said Pakistan’s participation in World Cup was under evaluation.
Foreign ministry spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said Pakistan was of the view that “politics should not be mixed with sports”.
“India’s policy of not playing cricket in Pakistan is disappointing,” Baloch said in Islamabad on Thursday.
“We are observing and evaluating all aspects relating to our participation in the World Cup including the security situation for Pakistani cricketers and we will offer our views to PCB (Pakistan Cricket Board) in due course.”
Doubts over Pakistan’s participation has meant that the dates and venues for the World Cup are yet to be confirmed with just over three months left before the start of the tournament.
It may be noted that the Men in Blue have not toured Pakistan since 2008 due to strained relations between the two countries. The last bilateral series between the arch-rivals took place in 2012, when Pakistan toured India for limited-overs matches.
Since then, the two countries have played each other only in multi-team events at neutral venues over the last decade.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari was among the foreign ministers who travelled to India’s Goa last month for a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting, becoming the first senior Pakistani leader to visit India in nine years.