India captain Suryakumar Yadav said his team would travel to Colombo as planned for their T20 World Cup clash against Pakistan, despite their arch rivals’ decision to boycott the match.
The Pakistan government directed the team to boycott the February 15 Group A contest to show solidarity with Bangladesh, who were replaced by Scotland following their refusal to tour India over safety concerns.
“Our mindset is clear,” said Yadav in a captain’s press conference. “We have not refused to play – they have.
“We’ve booked our flight and we are going.”
India T20 captain Suryakumar Yadav
India, the reigning T20 world champions, are aiming to become the first hosts to win the tournament as well as the first team to win two T20 World Cups in a row.
Pakistan’s boycott of the India match would leave them with little margin for error in their bid to reach the Super 8s stage, as only the top two teams from each group in the 20-team tournament advance.
Salma Agha, Pakistan captain, deferred to the judgement of his government, stating that a decision to boycott the game was “not in our control”.
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Eoin Morgan gives his assessment of the key areas for England ahead of the T20 World Cup.
“It’s a government decision, and we respect that,” he said. “Whatever they are going to say, we will do that.
“And then, we have three other games, and we are very excited about that.”
Asked what would happen should India and Pakistan meet in a knockout game, Salman said they would follow government advice.
Athers: Cricket in crisis
Former England captains Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussein deemed the boycott a ‘crisis’ on the Sky Sports’ Cricket Podcast previewing the tournament.
“It’s a bit of a crisis for the international game and the world game, actually, because the game is so concentrated in that one area,” Atherton said.
“If you’ve got a situation where India won’t go to Pakistan, Pakistan won’t go to India, now Bangladesh won’t go to to India – lots of global events are there. And these global events are starting to become very compromised.
“We can talk about the more immediate impact, but that’s broadly a bit of a crisis for the game.”
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Speaking on the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast, Nasser Hussain, Michael Atherton, and T20 analyst Freddie Wilde discuss how England will do in the upcoming T20 World Cup after a successful series against Sri Lanka
Hussain likened the decision to one he made as England captain in 2003, to boycott a World Cup game against Zimbabwe in Harare, but remarked that the intersection between cricket and politics has become much more congested in recent years.
“Sport and cricket and politics have always been intertwined and no one knows that better than me,” said Hussain.
“I didn’t take an England side to the 2003 World Cup game in Zimbabwe. Some of that was down to security. A lot of it was down to the Mugabe regime.
“There’s always been a link between sport and politics, but it just seems recently that link is more and more. It used to be the exception. It’s now the norm.
“Cricket used to unite nations and countries that were finding difficulties and now it’s pushing people apart.”
England’s T20 World Cup fixtures (first round)
All times UK and Ireland; all games live on Sky Sports
vs Nepal (Sunday February 8) – Mumbai (9.30am)vs West Indies (Wednesday February 11) – Mumbai (1.30pm)vs Scotland (Saturday February 14) – Kolkata (9.30am)vs Italy (Monday February 16) – Kolkata (9.30am)
Watch every match of the T20 World Cup live Sky Sports from February 7-March 8. Get Sky Sports or stream contract-free.
