In last one month or so, the Indo-Pak World Cup game has come under a lot of scrutinies. India and Pakistan have already cut down their bilateral ties and the situation has now become worse after the Pulwama attack last month that claimed the lives of 44 CRPF personnel. Since then, there has been a huge cry to boycott Pakistan in all sectors including cricket and the BCCI has not remained far behind in respecting the popular sentiment.
BCCI had reportedly requested the ICC to ban Pakistan from the ICC tournaments. Later on, the Indian board had later written to the apex body of the game, requesting it to ask its member bodies to sever ties with a country that harbors terrorism. However, the ICC had turned down the request without clarifying that whether the apex boy was on the same page with the BCCI as far as boycotting Pakistan in the World Cup was concerned or not.
ALSO READ: David Richardson Calls Team India A Team To Beat In World Cup 2019
Recently, the ICC CEO, David Richardson has now come up with a huge update on the chances of the high-voltage clash going on as planned. He said that there is no threat to the scheduled match, revealing both the teams are bound by an agreement. He stated that all the teams have signed an agreement as per which they are bound to play all the matches in an ICC tournament.
As per the reports in Times of India, Richardson said, “For ICC events, all teams have signed a members’ participation agreement, which requires them to participate in all the matches of the tournament and (in case of) any unjustified non-compliance with that provision, the playing conditions will kick in and the points will be awarded accordingly (to the other team).”
Recently, there was another controversy between the arch-rivals when Pakistan opposed Team India’s gesture of wearing camouflage military caps. The players were seen donning the special caps during the Ranchi ODI against Australia in order to pay tribute to the armed forces. However, Pakistan had accused India of politicizing the game before writing to ICC, urging the governing body to take action.
ALSO READ: Yuvraj Singh reminisces the World Cup Triumph of 2011 in Mumbai
The ICC later confirmed that the BCCI had taken permission for the same. Speaking on that matter, Richardson said, “In this case, it was a one-off consent. It was granted subject to the message around the wearing of the caps simply being sympathy with the people, who had lost their lives in the (Pulwama) attack and in particular, to help them raise funds for the families of the people who had lost their lives. The ICC’s motto is clear. We don’t want to mix politics with sports.”
