India and Pakistan will play each other in neutral venues in major tournaments (Photo by Alex … [+]
Finally, as the clock ticked agonizingly closer, the schedule for February’s Champions Trophy can be officially announced after a resolution in the latest chapter of warring between foes India and Pakistan.
It has been a long-winded process, filled with the usual tumult between the nuclear-armed neighbors.
Ever since it was announced three years ago that Pakistan was to host the Champions Trophy, the first ICC event in the country in almost three decades, everyone knew that India would be unlikely to travel there given the hard-line stance from its nationalistic government.
India have not travelled to Pakistan since 2008, just before the Mumbai terrorist attacks which has altered cricket ever since. While the rivalry had endured previously, despite plenty of tumult, it has ceased in bilateral cricket and they only play each other in ICC tournaments although often through gritted teeth and after much bickering.
To the surprise of no one, apart from seemingly the International Cricket Council who didn’t appear ready for a contingency, India refused to travel to Pakistan, who obviously were displeased and threatened to reciprocate at next year’s T20 World Cup in India.
India and Pakistan is cricket’s biggest rivalry (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
An ICC board meeting in October was hoped to find solutions but – as is often the case with those get togethers of the power brokers – nothing eventuated. A whole lot of grandstanding, accusations and threats resulted over the next two months.
The end result of a hybrid model, reminiscent of last year’s Asia Cup, was always going to happen. That was learned from those close to the situation over a month ago with the UAE almost certain to host the India-Pakistan blockbuster – cricket’s most lucrative contest – and the knockout stages, including the final. A final decision on the co-host, with Sri Lanka also believed to be a contender, will be announced imminently.
While a hybrid model was long ago inevitable, the sticking point came with Pakistan wanting a neutral venue to also be part of events in India for the rest of the current cycle through to 2027.
Those in the industry thought it was fanciful that India’s all-powerful governing body would yield at all, given its heft, but in perhaps a surprising – certainly welcome – twist, the hybrid model with be part of the 2025 women’s ODI World Cup – hosted by India – and the men’s T20 World Cup in 2026. Pakistan will host the T20 World Cup in 2028.
It was hoped that women’s cricket could help mend relations between the countries but, disappointingly, it has also been caught up in the politicking.
It’s unclear the role played by new ICC chair Jay Shah, who quite obviously has gravitas within Indian cricket having recently run the show for a number of years. If he did have an impact then that bodes well that the all-powerful Shah can be a difference maker.
While it’s probably the best outcome given the circumstances, and at least avoids this constant squabble for at least the next few years, it’s hard not to lament how this strained relationship – of cricket-mad countries boasting around 1.7 billion people combined – has affected a sport so financially reliant on matches between India and Pakistan.
It’s simply a travesty that the sport’s most passionate and compelling rivalry continually gets sabotaged by politics. Cricket would be so much stronger if India and Pakistan could restart bilateral cricket and play in each other’s country.
India and Pakistan played one another in New York at the T20 World Cup (Photo by J. Conrad Williams, … [+]
It would also ensure major international tournaments aren’t compromised with the hybrid model going to make it difficult logistically for those teams playing India in the Champions Trophy as they will have to undergo travelling in and out of Pakistan.
There are also questions of legitimacy over the World Test Championship, hoped to help keep five-day cricket afloat, if India and Pakistan can never play each other.
The fraught relationship will unlikely be mended, but the settlement reached between them this week was for the good of cricket which is a far cry from what we’ve seen in this never-ending feud.
