BCCI has refused to send the Indian team from Pakistan for the Champions Trophy 2025. Information about this has been given to ICC and PCB. The board has cited security reasons for this. There has been an uproar since this decision of BCCI. However, India is not the first team which has refused to go to another country and play in an ICC tournament. Before this, many teams including Australia, New Zealand, England and West Indies had done this, due to which they also had to suffer the consequences. Let us know which countries took such a decision and what was its result.
Australia, West Indies had refused to play
India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka hosted the 1996 World Cup. In this, Sri Lanka was to host 4 group stage matches against Australia, West Indies, Zimbabwe and Kenya. But on January 31, just 14 days before the tournament, a bomb blast occurred at the Central Bank in Colombo. More than 90 people were killed in this, while more than 1400 people were injured. After this incident, Australia and West Indies refused to go to Sri Lanka citing security. Not only this, both the teams also demanded to be given full marks for the match.
When the Sri Lankan board opposed this, the ICC tried to compromise by dividing the points among the teams. But the Sri Lanka Cricket Board refused this. After this, voting took place on the matter, in which ICC won. Still, Sri Lanka did not agree and asked for re-voting with the demand of 2 points. This time he won and was assured of getting a total of 4 points. In the end, it won the World Cup trophy by defeating Australia in Lahore, Pakistan.
This happened in the 2003 World Cup also
Like the 1996 World Cup, the incident also happened in the 2003 World Cup. This time the hosting was with South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya. Then the England team had refused to play in Harare, Zimbabwe due to security reasons after the leaders of the opposition party were arrested. England had to suffer the consequences of this. Zimbabwe was given full marks without any debate, which it benefited from. Zimbabwe team scored a total of 14 points in the group stage and managed to qualify for the Super Six. Whereas the England team could get only 12 points and was out of the tournament.
In the same tournament, like England, New Zealand had refused to play against Kenya in Nairobi. He also expressed concern about the safety of his players. The New Zealand Cricket Board had quoted its sources as saying that it had received information about a terrorist incident in Nairobi. He said that many terrorist groups were active and could attack at any time. The points of this match were given to Kenya. Despite this, the New Zealand team was successful in qualifying for the Super Six. At the same time, Kenya’s team benefited from getting the points from the match against New Zealand and it was the first and only time in the World Cup history that it made it to the Super Six.
These countries had withdrawn from the entire tournament
In 1982, the West Indies team refused to go to New Zealand for the Women’s World Cup. He had withdrawn his name from the entire tournament. However, the reason behind this was not security but ‘apartheid’ issue. In fact, in 1981, New Zealand had invited the South African rugby team to play. At that time, there were struggles against apartheid in South Africa. Due to inviting South Africa, West Indies refused to send her to the Women’s World Cup to be hosted by New Zealand next year. After this, an International XI team made up of players from other teams participating in the tournament was fielded.
The hosting of the 2009 T20 World Cup was in the hands of England. Zimbabwe had refused to play in this tournament. According to him, the British government did not want to give visas to Zimbabwean cricketers. That’s why he took this decision. When Zimbabwe withdrew, the Scotland team was given entry in the tournament as the third Associate Nation after Ireland and Netherlands. New Zealand had withdrawn its name from the 2022 Under-19 World Cup hosted by West Indies. The New Zealand Cricket Board had cited the ban on children below 18 years of age due to the Covid pandemic implemented in their country.
