Pakistan withdraw boycott of India match at T20 World Cup

The much-anticipated match between India and Pakistan at the T20 World Cup will go on as scheduled earlier on 15th February at Colombo. Earlier, the Pakistan government had given permission for their cricket team to travel to Sri Lanka for the T20I showpiece but denied them permission to take the field against arch-rivals India.

After a lot of discussions and negotiations with the ICC, the PCB agreed to play the match as planned, and the same was revealed by Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif.

“Following the ICC press release, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has directed the Pakistani cricket team to play the match against India on February 15,” PCB spokesperson Amir Mir said in a statement that was also shared on social media.

Meanwhile, Sri Lankan cricket had written to the PCB stating that the island nation could incur heavy financial losses in case of a boycott.

Furthermore, ICC also said it would not impose any sanctions on the Bangladesh Cricket Board, which in turn, had appealed to Pakistan to honour the February 15 engagement with India. Earlier, Bangladesh decided to opt out of the T20I showpiece due to security reasons, and they were replaced by Scotland.

“Following my short visit to Pakistan yesterday and given the forthcoming outcomes of our discussions, I request Pakistan to play the ICC T20 World Cup game on 15 February against India for the benefit of the entire cricket ecosystem,” Aminul Islam, the BCB president said.

“It is acknowledged that BCB retains the right to approach the Dispute Resolution Committee (DRC), should it choose to do so. This right exists under current ICC regulations and remains intact,” the ICC said. “The ICC’s approach is guided by its principles of neutrality and fairness and reflects the shared objective of facilitative support rather than punishment.”