The Pakistan national cricket team’s participation in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 to be played in India is one of the biggest talked about topic in the world of cricket at the moment as it is likely that Pakistan won’t play it’s World Cup matches in India.
The ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 is to be played in India later in the year during the October November window. However, there is still question mark over the participation of the Pakistan cricket team, who are unwilling to travel to India to play in the tournament.
The whole scenario erupted when the BCCI secretary Jay Shah announced that Team India won’t travel to Pakistan to play in the Asia Cup 2023 to be played in Pakistan in summer this year. As a counter to BCCI’s statement, then PCB chairman Ramiz Raja said that Pakistan will also not travel to India to play in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023.
While the India’s participation in the Asia Cup 2023 seems to be on the way to be resolved with the Asia Cup being played in other country than Pakistan or Team India would play its matches at a neutral venue, the likes of Qatar, UAE or Oman, there’s been no confirmation on that front.
In such a scenario, even now the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has also demanded that Pakistan should be allowed to play its World Cup 2023 matches at a neutral venue.
According to a latest report on Cricket Pakistan website, a PCB source said, “Yes, we are thinking that we will not travel to India for World Cup matches if BCCI didn’t send their team to Pakistan for Asia Cup.” The source further went on to add that Pakistan should be allowed to play it’s all World Cup matches either in Bangladesh or Sri Lanka, “We want Sri Lanka or Bangladesh to host our matches, we want to play there, and not in India.”
A recent ESPNcricinfo report stated that Bangladesh will host Pakistan’s matches in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023, however, an ICC source dismissed the claim in a report published on Cricbuzz.
