The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Najam Sethi has informed the decision to International Cricket Council (ICC) Chairman Greg Barclay of Pakistan’s hesitance to play their initial ODI World Cup 2023 matches at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
The Board of Cricket Control for India (BCCI) was likely to host the heavyweight clash between arch-rivals India and Pakistan in Ahmedabad since it has the largest cricket stadium in the world and a capacity to accommodate over 1,00,000 spectators. The PCB has clearly stated that they will not play any games against India at Ahmedabad unless and until it is a knockout fixture.
PCB’s concern was raised after tensions between the two neighbouring rivals further intensified. This was after Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan rejected PCB’s suggested Hybrid model host the upcoming edition of the Asia Cup 2023.
PCB says no objections to playing ODI World Cup 2023 matches in Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai
The PCB has admitted to the fact that they have no concerns about playing their World Cup 2023 fixtures at Kolkata, Bangalore and Chennai. PCB will confirm their decision once they obtain a travel clearance from the Central Government in order to send the Pakistan team to the World Cup.
ICC Chairman Greg Barclay had recently flown to Karachi to take stock of the current situation of Pakistan’s participation in the World Cup 2023.
Pakistan has been highly disappointed after the rejection of its Hybrid model. The decision by Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan was taken after their meeting with BCCI during IPL Final. This has highly sparked a major controversy between India and Pakistan.
It will now be interesting to see how the issues of the Asia Cup and World Cup are sorted between the arch-rivals. The PCB has appealed to ICC in order to convince BCCI and other Asian counterparts to accept the Hybrid Model for Asia Cup.
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