Perth
\nAfter around a week of uncertainty, the government of Pakistan decided on Sunday to allow its team to participate in the Men\u2019s ICC T20 World Cup 2026 but barred it from playing against India on February 15, when the Green Shirts were scheduled to play their only group stage match against the arch-rivals.
\n\u201cThe government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan grants approval to the Pakistan cricket team to participate in the ICC World T20 2026, however, the Pakistan cricket team shall not take the field in the match scheduled on 15th February 2026 against India,\u201d a post of the government\u2019s X account said.
\nOn Monday, Pakistan Cricket Board chief and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi had met Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif as the possibility of a boycott of the T20 World Cup loomed over Bangladesh\u2019s withdrawal from the tournament.**
\nAfter the meeting, Naqvi had said he had briefed the PM on the \u201cInternational Cricket Council (ICC) matter\u201d and a \u201cfinal decision would be taken either on Friday or next Monday\u201d.
\nThe meeting took place as questions were raised about Pakistan\u2019s participation in the tournament following the ICC\u2019s decision to replace Bangladesh with Scotland.
\nBangladesh were replaced by Scotland on January 24, following their refusal to tour India over safety concerns in the wake of soured political relations between the Asian neighbours.
\nThe governing ICC had rejected Bangladesh\u2019s request to move their matches to tournament co-host Sri Lanka, saying it was not feasible to change the schedule so close to the February 7 start of the tournament.
\nHours before the ICC had announced its decision, Naqvi had said that Bangladesh was being treated unfairly and should be allowed to participate in the tournament.
\nAt the time, he had said that Pakistan\u2019s participation was still not confirmed. \u201cThe prime minister is not in Pakistan right now. When he returns, I\u2019ll be able to give you our final decision,\u201d Naqvi had said.
\nThe events underline the current tension in South Asian cricket.
\nThe T20 World Cup, co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka, is set to begin on February 7.
\nPakistan have been placed in the same group as defending champions India, but will be play all their matches in Sri Lanka under an arrangement brokered by the ICC, allowing them to play at a neutral venue.
\nFollowing India\u2019s refusal to travel to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy in 2025, a \u201chybrid model\u201d was decided upon whereby India played all their matches in Dubai, chosen as a neutral venue.
\nAs per the compromise, Pakistan are set to play all their matches at the upcoming T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka.
\nFollowing Pakistan\u2019s decision of not playing against India, Indian veteran commentator raised questions in a post on X.
\n\u201cIt will be very interesting to see the response of the ICC if Pakistan go to the World Cup but don\u2019t play India. I don\u2019t know the legal position, or how the precedence could play out, but I won\u2019t be surprised if the ICC asks that the broadcaster\u2019s loss be deducted from Pakistan\u2019s share of ICC revenues. And, by the way, what if it is an India-Pakistan final?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Perth After around a week of uncertainty, the government of Pakistan decided on Sunday to allow its team to participate in the Men\u2019s ICC T20 World Cup 2026 but barred it from playing against India on February 15, when the Green Shirts were scheduled to play their only group stage match against the arch-rivals. \u201cThe …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":93074,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93092"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93103,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93092\/revisions\/93103"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}