BCCI undecided on boycotting Pakistan at ICC World Cup
New Delhi: The crucial BCCI CoA meeting on Friday failed to decide whether India should play against Pakistan in the upcoming ICC cricket World Cup in the United Kingdom in May-July in the wake of the Pulwama terror attack.
After a four-hour-long meeting, the three-member Committee of Administrators (CoA) was undecided on the issue and appeared to be waiting for an indication from the government before it can take a call.
“The June 16 (India vs Pakistan) match is very far away. We will take a call on that much later. We will take a decision only after consultations with the government,” CoA Chairman Vinod Rai told reporters after the meeting.
Asked about the views of some former players and officials who have demanded a boycott of the match against Pakistan, he said he would not like to go into the comments being made by others.
In reply to another question, he said the BCCI would write to ICC about the need to boycott countries from where terror emanates.
“We’ll write to the ICC expressing our concerns about Pakistan and that security of players, officials and everybody else must be taken care of,” Rai said about the first decision taken at the meeting.
“We’re telling the cricket community that in future we must sever ties with nations from where terror emanates,” he said adding the copy of the letter to the ICC will be made public.
Rai also said that there will not be any Indian Premier League (IPL) opening ceremony and the amount of the budget allotted for the ceremony will be given to families of the victims of the Pulwama terror attack.
“There will be no IPL opening ceremony. Instead the money will be donated to families of Pulwama martyrs,” Rai said about the incident in which Pakistan-sponsored terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed carried out a suicide attack in which 40 Central Reservce Police Force (CRPF) troopers were killed.
