PCB CEO dismisses reports of Pakistan pulling out of 2021 T20 World Cup

What's the story?

Pakistan Cricket Board's CEO, Wasim Khan, has confirmed Pakistan's participation in the ICC T20 World Cup 2021, amid rumours of the nation pulling out of the the global event which would be hosted by India in case the Indian team don't visit Pakistan to play in the Asia Cup later this year.

The background

Pakistan had secured the hosting rights for Asia Cup 2020, however, because of the tensions between India and Pakistan, there is no clarity over the Men in Blue's participation in the tournament. Since India did not express their readiness to play in Pakistan, a report emerged that PCB would pull out of the T20 World Cup scheduled to take place in India next year.

It should be noted that India was supposed to host the Asia Cup in 2018, but because of the problems with their neighbours, BCCI shifted the tournament to the U.A.E.

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The heart of the matter

Talking to Sportstar on Saturday (25th January), Khan clarified that PCB has no plans of withdrawing from the T20 World Cup in 2021. He rubbished the earlier reports and said:

“This has been completely taken out of context. Even though we would still want to host the Asia Cup in Pakistan, the Asian Cricket Council needs to decide on what it will do about the matches involving India.”

Speaking further about the false rumours, Khan added:

“It’s absolutely incorrect. What I would like to say is that we are concerned about security issues and also there could be issued in attaining visas. But we are confident that things will ease out over the period of time.”

He even mentioned that if India wish to play their Asia Cup matches at a neutral venue, then the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) will take the final call on that matter.

What’s next?

The Asia Cup will take place later this year, and it will be intriguing to see if the Indian team agree to play in Pakistan or the tournament shifts to a new venue.