Anurag Thakur (Pic Credit: Wikimedia Commons)
The India vs Pakistan game in the Asia Cup is facing a barrage of criticism over its time-of-year schedule- the match is held less than five months after the Pahalgam terror attack in April 22 that killed 26 people in Jammu and Kashmir.
The opposition claims that the cricket game against Pakistan is an affront to the national feelings, with Indian soldiers giving their lives at the borders. BJP MP and former sports minister Anurag Thakur added some clarity to the row by explaining that even though India might engage Pakistan in multinational tournaments, its position as far as bilateral ties with Pakistan are concerned will not change.
BJP MP Anurag Thakur, who was present in the row, explained that India was only playing the game because it had to.
Whenever ACC or ICC hosts multinational tournaments, it is a point of compulsion, a need to be part of the tournaments. Failure to do so means they are out of the tournament, they will be forced to concede the match and the other team will receive the points…But that is not the case with bilateral tournaments against Pakistan. It is a decision that we have been making over the years that India will not play bilateral tournaments with Pakistan until Pakistan halts terrorist attacks on India.
The new policy on sports in India has it that India would not hold bilateral competitions with Pakistan but still play them on multilateral tournaments like the currently running Asia Cup and the International Cricket Competitions.
Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Devajit Saikia gave the reasons why India has no option, but to play Pakistan in the ongoing Asia Cup 2025.
Saikia told Hindustan Times that we have chosen to take part in the Asia Cup since it is a multinational event. It is simply like an Olympic, any FIFA tournament, AFC tournament, or International Athletics Tournament.
This is the reason why we cannot boycott the multinational tournament, since by boycotting this tournament, we shall cause a lot of negative publicity regarding all of our future ventures of hosting any multinational tournament in the country.
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