If India-Pak match is cancelled, ICC will suffer loss of crores.Image Credit source: Getty Images
There will be no match between India and Pakistan in T20 World Cup 2026. Pakistan Cricket Board announced 6 days before the tournament that it will not field its team in the match against India in the World Cup. PCB has cited the orders of the Pakistani government as the reason for this decision. After this decision of Pakistan, ICC has warned of serious consequences in its statement. It is believed that if PCB does not change its decision then ICC can impose a heavy fine on it. But in case this match does not take place, ICC itself may have to face a loss of up to Rs 200 crores.
For the last many years, in every ICC event, most of the eyes are on India-Pakistan match because these two teams clash with each other only in these tournaments. In such a situation, excitement and curiosity about this match is at its peak. Due to this, ICC has been earning the most from India-Pak match. ICC receives huge fees from the broadcaster due to the India-Pakistan matches being fixed in tournaments like World Cup and Champions Trophy.
But if this match does not take place, then Jio-Hotstar, the biggest broadcaster of the tournament, will not earn any money and ultimately it will affect ICC only because it will not get the fee for this match. According to a report by Cricbuzz, India’s matches in any ICC tournament are earning around Rs 100 crore. This almost doubles in the India-Pakistan match because the rate of every 10 second ad for the India-Pakistan T20 match is usually between Rs 25 lakh to Rs 40 lakh. In such a situation, this loss can reach up to Rs 200 crore.
Now if ICC suffers this much loss then it will affect the revenue sharing model, where the earnings of all the cricket boards including BCCI, PCB will be affected. This may not be a big price for the already very rich BCCI but it could be a huge loss for the PCB and other boards. Not only this, a source associated with the ICC board told PTI that in case of cancellation of the match, the ICC can force the PCB to compensate the loss to the broadcaster as a punishment.