Indian board rules out cricket with Pakistan in wake of militant attacks

Secretary of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Anurag Thakur, on Sunday (16 August) said that India would not play cricket with Pakistan as long as the latter ‘promotes’ militancy against it.

Thakur’s comments come in the backdrop of a slew of ceasefire violation by Pakistani Rangers along India’s Kashmir. Eight Indians were killed and 14 injured as Pakistan intensified firing along the disputed frontier, officials said on Sunday.

“As the cricket is concerned, I can understand it could be one of the media to have good relation with your neighbours but it can’t be the only media to have good relation with your neighbours. I am not against the series between India and Pakistan. But if Pakistan continues to promote terrorism in India and to promote terrorist attacks in India then they can’t expect India to play against Pakistan on any cricket field,” said Thakur at an event in northern hilltown of Shimla.

The India-Pakistan cricket rivalry is one of the most intense sports rivalries in the world anticipated by the fans of both the countries.

Any match between the two nations attracts lakhs of viewers and reportedly the count goes up to one billion according to TV ratings.

India has not played a bilateral Test series against Pakistan since 2007, though they did host them for two T20Is and three ODIs between December 2012 and January 2013.

Speaking about the controversies surrounding world’s richest cricket tournament Indian Premier League (IPL), Thakur said that a report prepared by five-member working group for the smooth conduct of IPL would be released soon.

“Which is the area where controversy does not exist? But this is also the truth that IPL is one of the most loved tournament by the people in which young players gets a platform to play with international cricketers. Along with this we have worked on all the problems. We have spoken to all the stake holders. It’s the time to finalise the report now. We had time of six weeks to look into the matter, which we will present beforehand,” said Thakur.

Last month BCCI set up a four-member committee to study verdict of a Supreme Court-appointed panel that has suspended two Indian Premier League (IPL) teams for two years in wake of corruption scandal.

The Justice Lodha Committee had proposed identical two-year suspensions on the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) franchises of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in a corruption scandal.

The Lodha Committee had also found CSK official Gurunath Meiyappan and RR co-owner Raj Kundra guilty, and imposed life-long ban on the duo after both men were previously found guilty of betting on matches and passing on information to bookies.

The Lodha Committee was established by Supreme Court in January after a separate committee had carried out the investigation into the betting scandal, which broke in 2013.