NEW DELHI: The Pakistan cricket team is not “comfortable” playing some of the participating teams at specific venues during the ODI World Cup in India, including Afghanistan in Chennai and Australia in Bengaluru.
The deadlock over the Asia Cup staging has ended and now Pakistan are expected to travel to India for the World Cup in October-November.
The much-awaited contest between India and Pakistan is likely to take place in Ahmedabad on October 15.
Before announcing the World Cup schedule, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has asked members boards including the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for suggestions on the proposed itinerary.
A reliable source in the PCB told PTI that the board’s data, analytics and team strategy experts have been given the task of approving the venues where the ICC and BCCI have tentatively scheduled Pakistan’s matches for the 50-over mega event.
The PCB sent the tentative itinerary for the team to the selectors/experts who apparently are not comfortable with some of the Pakistan team’s scheduled matches and venues.
Playing Afghanistan in spin-friendly Chennai would mean facing the likes of Rashid Khan and Noor Ahmad, who did well for Gujarat Titans in the 2023 Indian Premier League.
Conditions in Bengaluru are usually batting-friendly and it is hard to understand why Pakistan would have reservations about playing Australia at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.
The PCB source said the selectors, who are also part of the team management, have advised the board not to accept Chennai as the venue for the match against Afghanistan as it was historically and statistically a venue that favoured spinners.
The suggestion is to ask the ICC/BCCI to reschedule Pakistan’s matches and play Afghanistan in Bengaluru and Australia in Chennai to the team’s strength, the source claimed.
However, a BCCI source said that the ICC asking members for suggestions on the itinerary is part of the protocol and there has to be a strong reason for the venues to be changed.
They said, “A member board can push for a venue change due to safety reasons as Pakistan did in 2016 when they travelled to India for the T20 World Cup. If you start expressing reservations over a venue as per your team’s strengths and weaknesses on the field, then it becomes very tough to finalise the schedule.”
“So unless there is a strong enough reason, no changes are made as far as the venues are concerned,” said the source referring to the Indo-Pak contest in 2016 when the game was shifted to Kolkata from Dharamsala.
Last month, the PCB announced a new look national selection committee which for the first time had a secretary, manager analytics and team strategy for the national side in Hassan Cheema while also including Mickey Arthur, who is the national men’s team’s director, and head coach Grant Bradburn.
Chief Selector Haroon Rasheed has said that in a bid to embrace the requirements of modern-day cricket, the selectors would be depending heavily on data and analytics to develop a team strategy before any match.
Asked about whether Pakistan was willing to play their showpiece match against India at Ahmedabad, the PCB source said it was agreed upon more or less but a final call would come from the government.
Pakistan team’s initial two qualifying matches are slated in Hyderabad for October 6 and 12.
The other venues where Pakistan are expected to play in are Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad.
‘It is the turn of the Indians to come here’
Pakistan batting great Javed Miandad hit back regarding Pakistan’s decision to play in India, saying Pakistan should not travel to the neighbouring country for matches, including this year’s ICC ODI World Cup, until the BCCI agrees to send its team to his nation first.
As per the draft schedule prepared by the ICC, Pakistan is scheduled to play India in the blockbuster World Cup clash at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on October 15.
But the 66-year-old former captain feels it is now India’s time to reciprocate by touring Pakistan.
He said, “Pakistan has been to India in 2012 and even in 2016 now it is the turn of the Indians to come here,” Miandad said. If I had to make a decision I would never go to India to play any match, even the World Cup.
“We are always ready to play them (India) but they never respond in the same manner. Pakistan cricket is bigger. We are still producing quality players. So I don’t think even if we don’t go to India it will make any difference to us,” Miandad added.
India last visited Pakistan in 2008 for the 50-over Asia Cup.
Since then bilateral cricket ties were suspended due to long-standing geopolitical tensions between the two nations.
Miandad feels sports should not be mixed with politics.
“I always say one can’t choose its neighbours, so it is better to live by cooperating with each other. And I have always said cricket is a sport which brings people closer to each other and can remove misunderstandings and grievances between countries,” he said.
Miandad’s fresh attack came after Pakistan were forced to host the upcoming Asia Cup in a hybrid model with India playing all their matches in Sri Lanka.
This decision didn’t go down well with Miandad, a vocal critic of India.
“It was on the cards that they would again not send their team to Pakistan for the Asia Cup so it is time we also take a strong stand now,” he said.
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