PAKISTAN FOREIGN MINISTRY EVALUATING PAKISTAN’S PARTICIPATION FOR THE 2023 WORLD CUP IN INDIA

PAKISTAN’S PARTICIPATION FOR THE 2023 WORLD CUP:

The foreign ministry of Pakistan has issued a statement that there are assessing the situation and after that, they will give further reports about the travel of the Pakistan team in the 2023 Cricket World Cup later this year in India.

It is important that the Pakistan Cricket Board has already given a statement that they are ready to tour India for the 2023 Cricket World Cup in India but their tour to India is subject to the approval of government officials.

In a statement, the foreign ministry has confirmed that they will have a discussion regarding the participation of Pakistan in the upcoming World Cup in India and all the aspects will be noted down before giving the green signal to the Men in Green for the World Cup.

‘’ We have received the official invitation from the Indian Prime Minister to our Prime Minister for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting and Pakistan will be represented in the summit. We will be making an announcement regarding Pakistan’s participation in the World Cup in some time ‘’, Mumtaz Zahra, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Pakistani government officials have stated that they are observing and evaluating the security situation for the Pakistan team to participate in the World Cup and will send their report to Pakistan Cricket Board regarding the tour to India for the World Cup 2023 in due course.

The Pakistan Cricket Team hasn’t toured India for any kind of bilateral series or ICC tournament since the 2016 World Cup, Pakistan team played a bilateral series in India against India back in 2013 and since that, the cricket series between both nations is suspended.

Even though there were also doubts about the participation of Pakistan in the 2016 Cricket World Cup but eventually Pakistan team toured India for the World Cup in India and it is again expected that there will be no such decision that will cause more disturbance but still, it’s not officially announced and till that there are still many rumors as the former chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, Najam Sethi already mentioned that they can think of boycotting the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 later this year in India.

The uncertainty of Pakistan of whether they will tour India or not has also caused a delay in the schedule of the ICC Cricket World Cup as well, the World Cup is just 3 months away but we are still unaware of the schedule of the World Cup 2023 in India.

The schedule of the 2023 Cricket World Cup is delayed because of this conflict between Pakistan and International Cricket Council, when there will be a guarantee by the Pakistan team to tour India, everything will be resolved but India has also played its part in getting things more complex when it announced that its team will not tour Pakistan for the 2023 Asia Cup and Pakistan in response threatened to boycott the 2023 Cricket World Cup in India.

India was adamant on their stance that they will not tour Pakistan for the 2023 Asia Cup and for that issue to resolve, Pakistan Cricket Board proposed a hybrid model for the Asia Cup which was accepted by Asian Cricket Council and Indian Board, but it will be difficult to apply the same model for the World Cup.

According to the proposed model, Asia Cup 2023 will be played in two countries, i.e. Pakistan and Srilanka – There will be a total of 13 matches in this tournament, four matches will be hosted in Pakistan and the rest of the nine matches will be played in Srilanka as per this Hybrid Model.

Even though, both sides agree whenever they are asked about their views about cricket, they always stand on the stance that cricket should not be mixed with politics but their on-field activities are totally different, which has again caused an undue disturbance in the World Cup.