“India can go to hell if they don’t want to come to Pakistan to play cricket”- Javed Miandad on Asia Cup 2023 conundrum

BCCI has refused to send Indian team to Pakistan citing permission issues from government.

Pakistani batting legend Javed Miandad has cursed India and said that they should go to hell if they don’t want to come to Pakistan to play cricket. His comments came after BCCI’s refusal to send the Indian team to Pakistan for the Asia Cup 2023 which is scheduled in September.

In October last year, BCCI secretary Jay Shah confirmed that India will not travel to Pakistan for the multi-nation tournament, and then later as the president of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC), he announced that the tournament will be shifted to a neutral venue.

But the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) objected to this unilateral decision as former PCB chief Ramiz Raja threatened to not come to India for ICC World Cup 2023 and the current chief Najam Sethi has continued the same tune.

In the recent meeting of ACC, called at the behest of Najam Sethi, the decision to announce the venue of the tournament was postponed to March as the discussions between India and Pakistan ended in a stalemate.

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Meanwhile, Miandad criticized the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for their rigid stance on not touring Pakistan.

“India can go to hell if they don’t want to come to Pakistan to play cricket. I’ve always backed Pakistan. And you know that I don’t leave spare India whenever an issue arises. But the thing is we need to look at our part. And we should fight for it. We don’t care because we are getting to host our cricket. This is ICC’s job. If ICC can’t control this there’s no use of the governing body. They need to implement similar rules for every team. If teams like these don’t come, they should be debarred. India hoga, apne liye hoga. Hmare liye nahi hai,” Miandad stated during the exhibition match between Peshawar Zalmi and Quetta Gladiators at Bugti stadium, Quetta.

Miandad added that India doesn’t want to come to Pakistan due to their fear of losing here.

He said, “Come and play. Why don’t they? They run. For them it becomes a trouble if they come here and lose to us. The public there can’t stomach it. It’s always been the case. During our time, they used to not play because of the same reason. Riots and fighting take place there. The crowd there is very nasty. You would’ve seen whenever India loses, to anyone, the crowd there burns down houses. When we used to play, they had faced such troubles.”

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“They are worst losers. The public there need to understand. Cricket is a sport. If you don’t play well, you deserve to lose. If I play well, I deserve to win. Rather you go into other things. What good is that? I say this to the ICC, if anyone does resort to such ways, ICC need to be strict. If you’re India, so what? If any country behaves this way, ICC need to take action. Such teams should be removed to learn a lesson.”

PCB has said that it will not let the ACC move the Asia Cup from Pakistan as teams like England, New Zealand, and Australia have toured the country over the last year. BCCI has reasoned that it won’t get ‘clearance from the Indian government’ to travel to Pakistan to play cricket owing to the diplomatic tensions between the two.

It is owing to BCCI’s stand that the tournament is likely to be shifted from Pakistan to elsewhere with PCB still retaining the rights to host the tournament.

(The Indian Express inputs)