India players refused to play Pakistan in ongoing World Championship of Legends in Birmingham.
Mohammed Siraj was left dumbfounded when a journalist questioned him about India’s cricketing relations with Pakistan and the recent incident in the World Championship of Legends (WCL 2025).
India Champions were supposed to clash with the Pakistan Champions on July 20 in Birmingham. However, ahead of the match, Indian fans made a huge uproar about the encounter, especially due to the recent Pahalgam terrorist attacks, where 26 tourists were slain by radicals allegedly backed by outfits from the neighboring country.
Then Shikhar Dhawan announced on social media that he was pulling out of the match, and several reports stated that other veteran players like Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, and Yusuf Pathan also were not ready to play Pakistan, reportedly due to the presence of Shahid Afridi on the opposition team.
Shortly after the Pahalgam incident was ascribed to the Resistance Front, a branch of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the 48-year-old Afridi had made a contentious anti-Indian statement that infuriated many and had slammed the Indian army as well.
As a result, the WCL 2025 organizers called off the match, and the points were shared by both teams.
When Mohammed Siraj attended the press conference ahead of the 4th Test between England and India that begins on July 23 in Manchester, a journalist questioned Mohammed Siraj about the incident in WCL.
“I don’t know," Siraj can be seen replying in a viral video on social media. The journo continued his question and further asked whether India would play Pakistan in ICC events going forward.
Siraj again replied with a smile, “I don’t know what to say.”
See here:
Relations between India and Pakistan have been at an all-time low since the Pahalgam incident, and in April-May this year, Pakistan attacked India with drones, and India replied by hitting multiple airbases in Pakistan.