Pakistan cricket team captain Salman Aga responded on boycottImage Credit source: PTI
If the situation does not change in the next few hours or days, then the India-Pakistan match will not take place in the T20 World Cup 2026 on 15th February. Along with the announcement of participation in the T20 World Cup, the Pakistani government and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Sunday also announced a boycott of the match against India. In this way, for the first time after almost a decade and a half, both the teams will not compete in any ICC men’s tournament. But was this a joint decision of the whole of Pakistan? Did the Pakistani team want to play India in the tournament? A short statement by the captain of the Pakistani team revealed his helplessness.
on sunday 1st february Pakistan Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi met once again. After this meeting, an official announcement was made by the Government of Pakistan that their team will participate in the T20 World Cup and will go to Sri Lanka. But the Pakistani team will not take the field in the group match against India to be held on 15 February. No reason for this was given in Pakistan’s statement but this decision was taken after Bangladesh was out of the T20 World Cup.
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What did the Pakistani captain say on the boycott?
But was the entire Pakistani team with the government and the board in this decision? It does not seem so from the statement of Pakistani captain Agha Salman. When this decision came, the third T20 match was being played between Pakistan and Australia. When Salman Aga reached the press conference after the end of this match, he was questioned on this decision. Agha said that this is not his decision. The Pakistan captain said, “We are definitely going (for the T20 World Cup). The rest is not our decision (not playing against India) and we cannot do anything on that. We have to do only what our government and our chairman say.”
Will Pakistan also be in the same situation as Bangladesh?
Perhaps even PCB’s media manager got nervous due to this statement of Pakistani captain and as soon as Salman finished speaking, he interrupted and said that instead of this issue, let’s talk about the series only. It is clear from this that the Government of Pakistan and the Board have taken this decision unilaterally. Incidentally, Bangladesh, in whose support the Pakistani government took this decision, had also announced not to play the World Cup in India without listening to the opinion of its players and had to suffer the consequences of this by losing its place in the tournament. Now the possibility of this unilateral decision falling on Pakistan has also increased.