That Bangladesh was instigated by Pakistan to resist playing matches in India during the forthcoming T20 World Cup is quite clear. Pakistan wanted to use Bangladesh against India. After Bangladesh cricketer Mustafizur Rahman was dropped from Kolkata Knight Riders team, the Bangladesh Cricket Board put a condition that it would participate in the T20 World Cup only if its match venues were shifted out of India to Sri Lanka. India and Sri Lanka are co-hosting the T20 World Cup.
The International Cricket Council (ICC), which organises the tournament, not only rejected Bangladesh’s demand to play away from India, but dropped it from the tourney itself and replaced it with Scotland, which will make its debut in the T20 World Cup.
Pakistan now finds itself in an unenviable position. Having pushed Bangladesh to take a strong stand against India that eventually led to its ungraceful ouster from the tournament, Pakistan is faced with a difficult choice. If Pakistan really wants to be seen to be standing by Bangladesh, it will have to boycott the tournament.
The ICC has been firm and strict about discipline and against any such blackmail. Pakistan cannot afford to get isolated, particularly when the morale of its cricket team is at its lowest. Isolation would completely finish Pakistan cricket. Boycotting an ICC-organised international tournament would come at a price. Moreover, it is an acknowledged fact that India commands a dominant position within the ICC. You cannot mess up with India and get away with it.
It is actually the Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Mohsin Naqvi who is the agent provocateur in the entire saga. Naqvi also holds a ministerial position in Pakistan’s federal government. Like any other institution in that country, the Pakistan Cricket Board also works under, and reports to, the Pakistan Army chief, whose pathological animosity and hostility towards India is quite well known. Naqvi, by taking an anti-India stand during the last Asia Cup when he refused to hand over the trophy to India, wanted to please his boss, the army chief Asim Munir. Naqvi wanted to take the battle further and involve Bangladesh also in his plan, using the excuse of the exclusion of that country’s cricketer from the Indian Premier League. Bangladesh bit the bait and ended up excluded and isolated.
The Pakistan Cricket Board has been only posturing in public that it will not play the T20 World Cup to protest against Bangladesh’s exclusion, which it attributes to India. At the same time, PCB realises that boycotting the T20 Cup would prove to be the proverbial straw on its already crumbling back. That is why the PCB, while threatening to boycott the tournament, has already booked flights for the players to fly to Sri Lanka to participate in the T20 World Cup.
The PCB and the ICC have been negotiating on the country’s participation in the tournament. Pakistan was already not scheduled to play any league matches in India. The match the two teams are supposed to play against each other will be held in Colombo, Sri Lanka on February 15. In case Pakistan reaches the final, the venue will be shifted out of Ahmedabad to Colombo, according to an earlier agreed-upon arrangement.
India-Pakistan relations have badly hit subcontinental cricket as well. The venue of the Asia Cup was shifted to Dubai and Abu Dhabi following the Pahalgam terror attack.
Also read: India aim to avenge Asia Cup final loss to Pak
Apprehending a similar stance by the ICC on Pakistan, as it did with Bangladesh, Pakistan relented and started negotiating, even using the financial aspect in its favour. PCB tried to pressure the ICC, arguing that without an India-Pakistan tie, there would be a massive fall in viewership and consequent drop in revenue from advertisements.
While India-Pakistan matches are the most watched, after the decimation of the Pakistan cricket team and its mostly one-sided defeats to India, interest has waned. Even if there were interest, the ICC is still not prepared to accept Pakistan’s blackmail.
Eventually, Pakistan will participate in the T20 World Cup, and the players will fly to Sri Lanka. In the process, Bangladesh ended up excluded and isolated, paying the price for being instigated by Pakistan.
Bangladesh could have negotiated the re-induction of Rahman into the Kolkata Knight Riders team. There was already considerable opposition within India to his removal. Bangladesh unnecessarily walked into the Pakistan trap and ended up expelled from the tournament.
Cricket, sadly, is becoming a victim of strained relationships between three important South Asian countries. India has taken the right stand by calling the bluff of these two countries, which tried to use a sporting event to settle political scores. India did not succumb to any blackmail.
Interestingly, no degree of strained relations between India and Pakistan has affected cricketing ties in the past. The two countries still continue to play cricket and can do so even at neutral venues.
Bangladesh would do well not to play second fiddle to Pakistan regarding its diplomatic relations with India. The current phase of cold relations between the two countries is momentary. Once an elected government is in place in Bangladesh, it will likely start rebuilding ties with India.
On the other hand, Pakistan remains a perennial adversary. Those at the helm of affairs in Bangladesh right now do not seem to realise that Pakistan was using the country merely to settle its own scores with India and not out of special concern for Bangladesh. Recently, Bangladesh has found common ground with Pakistan purely on the pretext of Islam. This, however, is unlikely to last long, as historical experience shows. Bangladesh will eventually realise this, likely after paying a heavy price, such as being expelled from the T20 World Cup, a demoralising event for the nation and its people. Pakistan is neither a neighbour to Bangladesh nor a congenital twin.
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