The first multilateral cricket tournament in the form of the men’s cricket world cup was held back in 1975 and between then and now, there have been many occasions where teams initially scheduled to play could not make it to the tournament itself.

This happened due to a plethora of reasons over the years, ranging from visa issues, security concerns or even a pandemic.

This is especially relevant regarding the controversy surrounding the Champions Trophy being hosted by Pakistan next year. After the Indian cricket board refused to send its team to Pakistan, a deadlock has developed, with the International Cricket Council (ICC) board to meet on Friday to decide the fate of the tournament.

One of the earlier instances of a team refusing to play in an ICC tournament was during the 1996 men’s cricket World Cup when the Australian and West Indies teams refused to travel to Sri Lanka — one of the cohosts of that World Cup.

This was in the aftermath of a major bombing in Colombo that led to security concerns and the subsequent refusal of both the Australian and West Indian men’s teams to tour Sri Lanka for their World Cup matches.

This even led to a combined Indo-Pak eleven touring Sri Lanka to demonstrate that the nation was safe to host the World Cup matches. Stalwarts such as Wasim Akram, Sachin Tendulkar, Waqar Younis and Anil Kumble played under Muhammad Azharuddin in that exhibition match.

Rashid Latif, who was part of the combined team that toured Sri Lanka told Dawn.com that “Pakistan is on a strong footing when it comes to the hosting issue, as per the ICC rules, Pakistan should be hosting. Also, the Pakistan-India game is very important to both the ICC and the broadcasters for the revenue it generates for them.”

In the 1996 World Cup, both Australia and West Indies had to forfeit their match points for these matches after the ICC board voted to award the points to the hosts, essentially giving Sri Lanka a walkover towards the semi-final which they grabbed with both hands, culminating in a famous victory over Australia in the final at Lahore.

Moving onto the 2003 World Cup — held across three countries in southern Africa: South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya — England refused to travel to Zimbabwe and New Zealand to Kenya.

As expected at the time, the ICC executive board refused to relocate their games to South Africa, ruling that the venues were safe despite the pleas of “security concerns” used by both teams.

On both occasions, the home teams of Zimbabwe and Kenya were awarded the four points for the match in line with ICC regulations.

This turned out to have a bearing on the tournament as well with both New Zealand and England failing to qualify for the second stage of the top 6 teams.

Zimbabwe made it to the top six and Kenya’s amateur team eventually ended up playing the semi-final of that tournament, giving Australia more than a few tense moments while they chased down a paltry total.

Zimbabwe again were in the headlines when the UK refused to issue their team visas for the 2009 T20 World Cup. They however decided to pull out of the tournament after negotiations with the ICC.

“We have decided to pull out in the larger interests of the game,” Peter Chingoka, the chairman of Zimbabwe Cricket at the time, had told ESPNCricinfo.

“We have been informed that the British government may not grant visas to our players, and that situation may prevail during the Twenty20 World Cup. We don’t want to be gatecrashers; we will attend only those weddings to which we are invited,” he said.

More recently, during the 2022 U-19 World Cup, New Zealand withdrew owing to “extensive mandatory quarantine restrictions for minors on their return home” during the tail-end of the Covid-19 pandemic. They were consequently replaced by the next-ranked team, Scotland.

These instances make up the many precedents where teams could not travel to ICC cricket tournaments and the global cricket body always moved on with the tournament despite a team’s absence, treating the match as a walkover and awarding the points to the hosts.

Aatif Nawaz of BBC‘s ‘Test Match Special’ said while speaking on the topic, “The global cricket community must support Pakistan’s stance or be further exposed as being motivated by nothing but financial gain and falling in line.

“If Pakistan were once again compelled to travel to India, it would demonstrate that the ‘spirit of the game’ is just a farcical notion that rears its head at the convenience of various boards.”

Whatever the outcome of the Champions Trophy issue, one thing is certain: international cricket will not develop into a truly global sport if the whims of the few outweigh the aspirations of the many.

Header image created with generative AI.