Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief executive officer, Wasim Khan, has rubbished reports claiming that Pakistan won’t send its team to India for the 2021 T20 World Cup if the BCCI doesn’t allow its team to tour Pakistan in the Asia Cup, later this year.
“This has been completely taken out of context. Even though we would still want to host the Asia Cup in Pakistan, the Asian Cricket Council needs to decide on what it will do about the matches involving India,” Khan told Sportstar from Lahore on Saturday.
Earlier, reports claimed that PCB would skip the World Cup T20 - to be held in India, next year - if the Indian team didn’t travel to Pakistan for the Asia Cup.
“It’s absolutely incorrect. What I would like to say is that we are concerned about security issues and also there could be issued in attaining visas. But we are confident that things will ease out over the period of time,” Khan said, making it clear that there’s no question of pulling out from the T20 World Cup - which is an ICC event.
India had hosted the Asia Cup at a neutral venue - in the UAE - in 2018, and this time too, there is uncertainty on whether India would get clearance from the government to travel to Pakistan owing to security issues.
That’s where there is a possibility of the matches being held at neutral venues. “If India wants to play at a neutral venue, the ACC will have to look into the matter and decide accordingly,” Khan added.
India has not toured Pakistan since 2008, while it has also not played a full Test bilateral series with the neighbouring country since 2007 due to strained political and diplomatic relations.
Pakistan did visit India in 2012 to play a short limited-overs series. However, the two sides have met in Asia Cup and ICC events over the last few years.
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