LAHORE: Former Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Khalid Mahmood on Saturday slammed the government and the PCB over forming a high-level committee to recommend if the Pakistan team should go to India to participate in this year’s ICC World Cup.

Earlier, Federal Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) Ehsan Ur Rehman Mazari confirmed that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had formed a committee to deliberate on Pakistan’s participation in the Oct 5-Nov 19 World Cup.

While disclosing that he had received a letter regarding the committee’s formation on Friday night, the IPC minister said that Special Assistant to Prime Minister Tariq Fatemi had been appointed as the committee’s coordinator.

Ehsan said that the committee members would make their recommendations on Pakistan squad’s tour to India, but added that the final decision on the matter “will be taken at the Prime Minister’s House”.

Talking to Dawn, Khalid raised two main objections over the formation of the above-mentioned committee.

“First of all, by involving politics in sports, Pakistan has distracted itself from its original policy in that connection,” he reckoned.

The former PCB chief continued, “Pakistan has been following the policy of not mixing sports with politics for the last decade or so and it is only the Indian government which is interfering in sports.

“And now if Pakistan follows the same policy that is being followed by India, it will be [termed] a success of India, not of Pakistan.

“In my opinion, the Pakistan team should go to India to play the World Cup as it is an event of the International Cricket Council; we should not miss it due to politics,” Khalid maintained.

He also criticised the PCB for engaging the government on the matter of the country’s participation in the 10-nation showpiece in India.

“I also condemn the PCB move of involving the government as it is the Board’s job to settle its issues,” Khalid insisted.

“In my tenure as PCB chief, Pakistan’s tour to India in 1999 was also in the doldrums due to Bal Thackeray-founded Shiv Sena whose supporters had dug the pitch at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium [in Delhi],” he recalled.

“Instead of involving the government in this situation, I as PCB chairman handled the matter on my own. We raised the security issue with the BCCI and sent a security team [to India]. Only after getting complete satisfaction our team toured India,” Khalid said.

Secondly, Khalid underlined, the PCB should have been part of the PM-formed committee.

“The PCB is the biggest stakeholder of any decision the committee will take but surprisingly no representative from the PCB is included in it,” he pointed out.

“[Eventually] if the government does not allow the team [to tour India for the World Cup], PCB’s relations with the ICC and other cricket boards may get affected,” he remarked.

“[In that scenario], obviously the PCB as the main stakeholder will have to suffer all the losses, not the government. But there is no one from the main stakeholder in the committee to apprise it of the positive and the negative results of going and not going to India,” Khalid stated.

The former PCB chief also lamented the fact that no cricketer was included in the second Interim Management Committee announced by the government recently.

Published in Dawn, July 9th, 2023