Finally, we have a solution to the Champions Trophy saga. The standoff that arose after India’s adamant decision not to send its team to Pakistan has finally found a solution. The Indian cricket team will not play in the Champions Trophy next year on Pakistan’s grounds. In a tit-for-tat, Pakistan will also not travel to India any time they host an ICC event until 2027, the closest being the women’s ODI World Cup next year.
The decision may be a win-win situation for not only bitter rivals—India and Pakistan—and, of course, the International Cricket Council. The warring factions have face savings of their own. India will rejoice not only at their might but also in flexing their muscles based on their might and money. The Pakistan Cricket Board and its lively and resolute chairman, Mohsin Naqvi, will feel they did not lose the battle. The ICC, whose part in the sage was nothing more than a fly on the wall, is also relieved. They will now settle to discuss the losses and get the arrangements done.
Throughout this wrangling on the Champions Trophy, Pakistan maintained a stiff stance: come to Pakistan or we will not accept a hybrid model. The PCB chairman has the government’s backing as he holds an important position at the federal level as interior minister. That allows him to ensure all security measures. In addition, Pakistan can adduce they have hosted teams like England and New Zealand (thrice each), Australia, South Africa, and Sri Lanka in the last four years. So, India’s claim that they have security fears was unacceptable to Pakistan. It leaves just one reason: political. PCB did offer solutions, and the best one they gave, and that too in writing an email, was to offer the Indian team to stay at the border city of Amritsar. “The Indian team can play their match in Lahore and return to Amritsar,” was the offer. It was a good solution. But the Board of Control for Cricket did not relent. Meetings after meetings were held, but nothing came to fruition. The matter remained fractious.
“Disappointing and muted”
The role ICC played in this whole episode was disappointing and muted. The game’s governing organisation was more of a governing body; it has not been an administrative body. It has become an event management company. Humorously and mockingly, the ICC left two warring factions, Pakistan and India, to fight and find a solution. It was bizarre. Pakistan giving a proposal and India rejecting it. It was a stalemate for weeks.
Sensing India would not relent as their government was not allowing them to cross the border, PCB decided to throw the last dice, and it was an acceptable solution. When you sit at a table to find a solution and one party is not ready to budge, then you weigh your options. PCB offered to accept the hybrid model conditionally. Naturally, Pakistan needed to wriggle out of the situation. PCB named the model “partnership and fusion,” under which Pakistan will also not tour India for any ICC event they host until 2027—the cycle for the broadcasters. It exposed India’s double standard: ready to host Pakistan but not ready to tour Pakistan.
Agreement in writing
PCB also wanted the agreement in writing. Legally binding. It was a lesson from the past. PCB accepted BCCI’s plan of Big 3 in 2014 in lieu of six bilateral series between Pakistan and India. But that pact was on a piece of paper that had no legal binding. When India backed out, Pakistan went to the Dispute Resolution Committee but lost and had to pay two million dollars as expenses of the case.
This time Pakistan pressed for a legally binding agreement. It took a while for India to digest that. They had to swallow the bitter pill, and the “partnership and fusion” model was approved. Pakistan will also not tour India, and the Indo-Pak clash in the Twenty20 World Cup will be played in Colombo as Sri Lanka co-hosts the event with India in 2026.
Fans in Pakistan
The real losers in this India not travelling to Pakistan are millions of Pakistan fans who wanted to see Indian players like Virat Kohli, Rishab Pant, Rohit Sharma, and Jasprit Bumrah playing in Pakistan.
Gen Z has not seen Indian players before their eyes, on the ground and in their shopping malls. Indian players have a huge fan following in Pakistan.
I was in India last year for the ODI World Cup and saw huge admiration for Pakistan players like Babar Azam, Shaheen Shah Afridi, and Naseem Shah from the current team and Wasim Akram, Shoaib Akhtar, and Shahid Afridi. The admiration is muted for people who shudder to express it openly. Admittedly, fans in Pakistan also fear expressing their affection for the players from across the border. Eight years ago, we had news that a fan named Umar Daraz was highlighted for placing Virat Kohli’s pictures in his shop. Reports suggest he waved an Indian flag on the roof of his house, which resulted in him being detained. He has since been forced to leave his house in Okara and has not been found by anyone recently. Sad, but true.
Pakistan’s stance that it will not tour India in the current cycle of ICC events until 2017 will also deprive millions of Indian fans of watching Pakistan players. A good number of Indian fans do have the resources to fly out and watch wherever the India-Pakistan match is played, but not many Pakistan fans can afford that. Similarly, the broadcasters will also lose big money on India-Pakistan matches, which are considered to be the highest revenue-generating contests in international events.
No engagement
The we-not-ready theme by India is not new. New Delhi has now decided they do not want to engage with Pakistan—from dialogue to trade to cricket. That is mixing politics with sports. India has continued to entwine politics into sports, stalling all bilateral cricket with Pakistan since the 2008 attacks on Mumbai. New Delhi had maintained that terrorists behind those attacks were based in Pakistan but there was no corroborated evidence given. The last few years have seen India propagating their agendas against Pakistan and was not ready to hold talks. Indian external minister Dr Jay Shankar did visit Pakistan this year for the SCO Summit and went happily but it wasn’t seminal for political overtures.
The cricket stand-off between Pakistan and India has a political solution only. Until then we will have a hybrid model — much to the chagrin of cricket fans across the border.
