World Cup: Will Pakistan come to India or not? Shahbaz Sharif took a big step after PCB’s letter

After the Pakistan Cricket Board wrote a letter to the government seeking advice on the travel of its men’s cricket team to India for the ICC World Cup 2023, Pakistan Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif constituted a high-level committee to decide on it. Have done The committee will be headed by Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and other members include Sports Minister Ahsan Mazari, Law and Justice Minister Azam Nazir Tarar.

 

Apart from this, the committee also has Maryam Aurangzeb, Asad Mahmood, Amin ul Haq, Qamar Zaman Kaira, former diplomat Tariq Fatmi and other high profile members of intelligence agencies. The main task of the committee will be to advise PM Sharif whether Pakistan should send its men’s cricket team to India for the World Cup, the schedule of which was announced in the last week of June. The International Cricket Council (ICC) and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) expect Pakistan to travel to India for the ODI World Cup, starting on October 5. However, the PCB has told them that the national team’s participation in the flagship event is subject to government clearance due to strained relations between the two countries.

 

The PCB had written to the Pakistan government seeking clarity on the way forward and also asked if officials had any security concerns in India and the five venues where Pakistan are to play their nine group matches. Pakistan’s longest stay in this World Cup is in Hyderabad. After playing two warm-up matches at the Raji Gandhi Stadium, they will begin their campaign against the Netherlands and Sri Lanka at the same venue. They have one match against India in Ahmedabad, two matches against Australia and New Zealand in Bengaluru, two matches against Bangladesh and England in Kolkata and two matches against Afghanistan and South Africa in Chennai.