PCB won’t boycott cricket ties with India

KARACHI: Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Shaharyar Khan has refused to follow in the footsteps of Pakistan Hockey Federation which announced this week that it would boycott future international events in India.

PHF secretary Shahbaz Ahmad has said that in order to register its protest with the International Hockey Federation (FIH) for dropping Pakistan from the Junior World Cup in India this month, it would not take part in any competition in India.

But Khan, a career diplomat, made it clear that the PCB would not follow in the footsteps of the PHF in announcing any boycott of ties with India in India.

“Look, we will not take any such decision because it will be unfair to millions of people who want to watch Indo-Pak matches.

Secondly, whenever we play against each other it means big financial benefits for the Boards and players and any boycott will only hurt us financially,” said Khan who had earlier made threats of boycotting India in ICC events. “By boycotting matches with India, we will only hurt our- selves,” he said. Khan said Pakistan was looking forward to having constructive discussions with the BCCI officials later this month during the Asian Cricket Council meeting in Colombo.

Khan said the next meeting of the ICC had already been moved to Dubai from Mumbai due to the strained relations between Pakistan and India.