Pakistan Cricket Board chief executive officer Wasim Khan, has clarified that he never said Pakistan would not be sending its team to India for the 2021 T20 World Cup if the BCCI doesn’t allow its team to tour Pakistan in the Asia Cup, later this year.
“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,” Khan told Sportstar from Lahore on Saturday.
There were earlier reports which said that PCB would skip the World Cup T20, which will be held in India next year, if the Indian team didn’t travel to Pakistan for the Asia Cup.
“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,” Khan further added. He made it clear that there’s no question of pulling out from the T20 World Cup – which is an ICC event.
In 2018, India had hosted the Asia Cup in the UAE which was a neutral venue and there are reports which suggest that India might not clearance from the government to travel to Pakistan owing to security issues.
“If India wants to play at a neutral venue, the ACC will have to look into the matter and decide accordingly,” Khan added.
“The question is what if India doesn’t tour Pakistan? My response is the ACC then needs to make a decision but since we have been awarded hosting rights, we fully expect the Asia Cup to happen in Pakistan. The ACC will then need to make a decision as to where they will play the India games,” Khan told PTI in an interaction.
