Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) executive Najam Sethi has encouraged BCCI to take a judicious choice with respect to its position on not heading out to Pakistan for the Asia Cup 2023. In 2022, Pakistan was awarded the right to host the continental tournament. However, India may be reluctant to travel to Pakistan because of political tensions between the two nations.

Sethi made a statement regarding the issue, stating that he is not concerned about the Asia Cup but rather the ODI World Cup 2023, which may be held in India on October 5. He went on to say that the boycotting game will continue if the two boards don’t find a compromise right now.

“BCCI should take a good, rational decision so that we don’t have any problems going forward. I’m not worried about the Asia Cup, it’s the World Cup, and India should not be looking at a situation where we end up boycotting the Asia Cup and also the World Cup and then India ends up boycotting the Champions Trophy – there’ll be a huge mess,”

PCB chairman Najam Sethi was quoted as saying by NDTV.

Reports claim that Pakistan presented the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) with a hybrid model in which India would have played its matches in the United Arab Emirates while the other teams would have played in Pakistan. However, logistical issues are said to have hindered the model’s reception by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC).

How can you ignore our team and our country? : Najam Sethi

Further talking about the discussion, Sethi said that Pakistan can’t be overlooked as they’re positioned higher than India in ICC ODI rankings and consequently ICC ought to step in to determine the issue.

“And so we (Pakistan) are right at the top (ODI rankings). So the thing is, how can you ignore our team and our country? So the ICC should step in. But my sense is that India would not like the ICC to step in,”

he added.

Notably, India last visited Pakistan in 2008 when the Asian Cup was held there. Since their last bilateral series in India in 2012-2013, the two teams have only met in multi-national competitions.