The Supreme Court appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) chief Vinod Rai has opined that BCCI wants the cricket community to isolate Pakistan for sheltering terrorism as earlier South Africa had to go through for their racial policies. However, on Friday, BCCI CEO Rahul Johri wrote a letter to the International Cricket Council (ICC) on Friday saying the BCCI “urges the cricketing community to sever ties with countries from which terrorism emanates.”
As per the quotes in The Indian Express, Rai said, “Why should we shoot ourselves in the foot by not playing? We should seek their (Pakistan) ouster and remove them from the cricketing committee. I look at it (the letter sent to the ICC) from the point of view that we are able to isolate Pakistan. Make it cricket apartheid for Pakistan on the terror issue. The idea is to work hand in hand with the Indian government to isolate Pakistan in the cricketing community.”
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Rai further explained that Team India represents the nation and the current setup feels strongly about the issue of terrorism.
CoA chief said, “The present dispensation feels strongly about it because we reflect the sentiment of the nation. We are not a closed cricket community, we represent the nation.”
The report also suggested that the Indian board would like to avoid what the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) is going through. Pakistani shooters were denied a visa to travel to India for participating in the World Cup in New Delhi. Consequently, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has imposed sanctions on India and there was the possibility of the IOC revoking all 16 Olympic quotas on offer at the ongoing World Cup.
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Talking about the same, one the sources of The Indian Express said, “The Olympics association took away the quota [two] and India had to suffer, we didn’t want to be in that situation. So first, we want to have a consensus of the cricket world and then act. It isn’t possible to just one fine day ask to remove Pakistan from the World Cup.”
There have been calls of India boycotting Pakistan at the ICC World Cup 2019 after a terrorist attack resulted in the death of more than 40 CRPF jawans earlier this month in Pulwama.
