BCCI secretary and Asian Cricket Council (ACC) chairman Jay Shah has confirmed that a decision was taken at the 91st BCCI AGM in Mumbai on Tuesday, that the Indian team will not travel to Pakistan for the Asia Cup in 2023 and the board will push for a neutral venue.
The 2023 Asia Cup is slated to be hosted by Pakistan and sources had earlier said that the BCCI was open to sending Team India to participate in the tournament. This will be only the second time after 2008 that Pakistan is set to host the Asia Cup tournament.
Cricket returned to normalcy in Pakistan after a decade with the likes of Australia and England conducting full tours and New Zealand also slated to visit next year.
However, the relations between India and Pakistan due to political tensions have led to the two sides not playing any bilateral cricket since 2012-13 and the two sides have only played in ICC and ACC tournaments.
India has not visited Pakistan since 2008 for international cricket and the Asia Cup in 2018, which was supposed to be played in India, was held in UAE due to tension between the two countries.
“Neutral venue for Asia Cup is not unprecedented and we have decided that we will not travel to Pakistan. It's the govt which decides over the permission of our team visiting Pakistan so we won't comment on that but for the 2023 Asia Cup, it is decided that the tournament will be held at a neutral venue,” BCCI secretary Jay Shah was quoted as saying by ANI.
The two India and Pakistan matches in the recent Asia Cup tournament in UAE led to full houses and tickets for their match in the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 which will be played at the MCG on October 23rd got sold out within minutes.
