‘They are afraid…’: Ex-Pak batsman’s BIZARRE claim over India not travelling to Pakistan for Asia Cup 2023

By Anthony On Mar 25, 2023

Arch-rivals India and Pakistan are at loggerheads over the venue of two marquee events to be played this year – Asia Cup in September 2023 in Pakistan and ICC ODI World Cup in India after that. After the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) refused to travel to Pakistan for the Asia Cup, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) too threatened to pull back from travelling to India for the ICC ODI World Cup.

Amid the tussle, media outlet, ESPNCricinfo has reported that a neutral venue is being discussed as a possibility for the matches involving the Indian cricket team. A lot of former Pakistan player, including Shahid Afridi and Shoaib Akhtar, however, have asked India to travel to their country for the Asia Cup 2023.

Imran Nazir, another former Pakistan player, meanwhile, has given a bizarre statement, saying India won’t come to Pakistan as they are afraid of losing.

Speaking on Nazir Ali podcast, Imran said, “There is no security reason. Just look at how many teams have been to Pakistan. Forget A teams, even Australia visited. These are all just cover-ups. The truth is that India won’t come to Pakistan [for the Asia Cup] because they are afraid of losing. Security is just an excuse. Come and play cricket. When you start playing politics, there is no way back.”

Notably, Imran was part of the Pakistan squad which lost the inaugural ICC World T20 tournament in 2007 in a thrilling final. Nazir’s career spanned from 1999-2012, during which the opening batsman played eight Tests, 79 ODIs and 25 T20Is for his country.

In the recent past, many teams have travelled to Pakistan, most notable among them is Australia, which took part in a three Test series in the Asian country. Apart from them, England players too travelled to Pakistan for a limited-overs series.

India and Pakistan, now just face off each other in the ICC tournaments only, after having severed cricketing ties in 2012/13 due to the unstable political situation between the two countries.

You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us here.

For all the latest Sports News Click Here

Read original article here

Denial of responsibility! TechAI is an automatic aggregator around the global media. All the content are available free on Internet. We have just arranged it in one platform for educational purpose only. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials on our website, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.