Dubai News
Asian Cricket Council president and Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Jay Shah on Tuesday said that Team India will not travel to Pakistan for the Asia Cup 2023, and that the prestigious tournament will instead be held at a neutral venue.
Asia Cup 2023 and 2025 ICC Champions Trophy, the fagship tournaments of the International Cricket Council, are to be held in Pakistan as the Asian giants are set to host the forthcoming edition of the Asia Cup in 2023.
The Asia Cup 2023 was supposed to be held in Pakistan and there were questions surrounding whether the Indian cricket team would travel to the neighbouring country to participate in the tournament. While there were some reports that India were ready to travel to Pakistan for the Asia Cup next year, Asian Cricket Council President and BCCI secretary Jay Shah has confirmed that India will not be travelling to their neigbouring country for the Asia Cup 2023.
“The venue for the 2025 Championship trophy is still to be decided – we will comment on that when it is decided. We are getting good earnings from our media rights, and our motive is [that] domestic players should get more benefits as our earnings [increase],” he added.
Only the Asia Cup continental tournament and ICC events bring India and Pakistan together. It has been over ten years since they last competed in a bilateral series; India, a former global champion, last travelled to Pakistan in 2008 to compete in the Asia Cup.
“We’ll have Asia Cup 2023 at a neutral venue. It’s the Government which decides over the permission of our team visiting Pakistan so we won’t comment on that but for the 2023 Asia Cup, it is decided that the tournament will be held at a neutral venue,” BCCI secretary Jay Shah confirmed.
India had last toured Pakistan for a bilateral series in 2005-06 under the leadership of Rahul Dravid. India and Pakistan have not played a bilateral cricket series since 2012-13 when Pakistan had toured India for three T20Is and as many ODIs. Since then, both teams have not played in bilateral series, and the teams have just met in world events or Asia Cup.
Matches between the two sides are always highly anticipated and stadiums go full house. The tickets of the two team’s T20 World Cup 2022 this Sunday (October 23) were sold out within hours of its release. India played Pakistan a couple of times in Dubai during the Asia Cup 2022 earlier this year but the games were held at a neutral venue.
