T20 World Cup: Pakistan’s selective boycott a political, well thought move

First a guessing game and then a decision akin to cutting one’s nose to spite one’s face – that’s how one would like to qualify Pakistan’s selective boycott of the all-important league game against India of the upcoming T20 World Cup. The decision, tactically announced by their government, is a well thought political one though aimed to hurt the ICC coffers and in turn India – it’s biggest beneficiary.

As things stand, this is the first time since the 2010 T20 World Cup that a global ICC event will not have a India-Pakistan game – at least for now. It’s anybody’s guess as to what would be Pakistan’s stance should they cross paths again in the knockout stages for despite forfeiting the big game on 15 February, Salman Ali Agha’s team look primed to move to Super Eight from their group after beating the likes of US, The Netherlands and Namibia.

The overriding question now is: what made Pakistan take the brinkmanship to another level, knowing fully well that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) could face a potential lawsuit to the tune of $ 38 million from the official broadcasters for loss of advertising and sponsorships? Not to speak of the punitive measures from ICC for violation of the Members Playing Agreement (MPA) alongwith being deprived of the annual revenue share?

The catch, of course, lies in the fact that PCB had left the ball in their government’s court for a final verdict – while fulfilling their obligations of announcing the squad within the deadline on 25 January. Aaqib Javed, their High Performance Manager and a selector, said while their job was selecting the squad, the onus of giving the permission lay with the government.

 He was in sync with Mohsin Naqvi, the PCB chairman, who gave two deadlines of reverting with the government decision on participation (30 January or 2 January) and got away with it with no censure from the ICC. No prizes for guessing that Naqvi, the Home Minister of the country, had used the interim period to tighten their case so that they can term the boycott as a ‘government decision’ and not of the board. Remember, when India refused to visit Pakistan to play the ICC Champions Trophy or on previous occasions, they always referrred to the red flag from the government about a security threat and the world governing body eventually fell in line.

During an interview with the National Herald, former PCB and ICC chairman Ehsan Mani felt Bangladesh would have had a stronger case about not travelling to India if their government had come to the forefront rather than training the guns on the shoulders of Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) after the Mustafizur Rehman ban.  The PCB were smarter, flaunting their political support for Bangladesh ahead of their forthcoming elections in the face of  India as the ‘bully’ – but at their government nod.

The buzz will be on the possible sanctions against Pakistan but for now – the ICC has chosen to tread carefully – saying it ‘expects PCB to explore a mutually acceptable resolution.’ Meanwhile, the ICC also need to face the flak for over-leveraging on the India-Pakistan game for more than 10 years now. In every major multi-nation tournament, they played in the hands of the broadcasters by grouping the two neighbours for a sure shot league game – often diluting the rest of the product – and a possible second one in knockout stages.

This is where Pakistan has chosen to hit albeit after much deliberation, and possibly being armed with legal advice. They apparently had three proposals on the table – one of complete boycott of the tournament, the selective one of the India game and a pragmatic one of playing with armbands pledging support for Bangladesh.

However, the last option could well have been shot by the ICC which doesn’t allow political statements, soon after the first outing. The one adopted makes no bones about the anti-India stance among two major stakeholders of sub-continent cricket – which may signal the futility of an Asian Cricket Council’s (ACC) existence anymore!