Mike Atherton calls for finish to neatly organized Indo-Pak clashes in ICC occasions

Alleging that pulls have been “neatly arranged” to make sure India-Pakistan clashes in ICC tournaments for “economic needs”, former England captain Michael Atherton has known as for an entire halt to cricket between the 2 bitter rivals as sport has turn into a “proxy for broader tensions and propaganda”.

In a scathing column, Atherton cited the latest “antics” on the Asia Cup the place the Indian group refused to shake fingers with Pakistani gamers and the Asian Cricket Council’s Pakistani head Mohsin Naqvi walked away with the winner’s trophy after the Indians refused to simply accept it from him.

“India and Pakistan have played each other in the group stage of every ICC event since 2013, which includes three 50-over World Cups, five T20 World Cups and three Champions Trophy,” Atherton mentioned.

“That is regardless of whether the initial stage has been a single round robin – part of the motivation for which is the inevitability of an India versus Pakistan fixture – or multi-group, when the draws have been neatly arranged to ensure the fixture goes ahead,” he added.

The tensions between the 2 nations are at an all-time excessive after the Pahalgam terror assault through which 26 Indians have been gunned down by Pakistan-backed terrorists resulting in navy motion by India in May.

“Despite its scarcity (maybe, in part, because of its scarcity) it is a fixture that carries huge economic clout, one of the main reasons why the broadcast rights for ICC tournaments are worth so much — roughly USD 3 billion for the most recent rights cycle 2023-27,” Atherton wrote in The Times, London.

“Due to the relative decline in the value of bilateral matches, ICC events have grown in frequency and importance, and so the India and Pakistan fixture is crucial to the balance sheets of those who would not otherwise have any skin in the game,” he mentioned.

Atherton mentioned time is now proper to finish the “tacitly supported arrangement” of making certain that the 2 arch-foes conflict no less than as soon as in ICC occasions. At the latest Asia Cup, the draw and schedule was such that the 2 sides confronted one another each Sunday of the three-week event.

“If cricket was as soon as the car for diplomacy, it’s now, clearly, a proxy for broader tensions and for propaganda. There is little justification, in any case, for a critical sport to rearrange event fixtures to go well with its financial wants and now that the rivalry is being exploited in different methods, there may be even much less justification for it.

“For the next broadcast rights cycle, the fixture draw before ICC events should be transparent and if the two teams do not meet every time, so be it,” Atherton mentioned.

India and Pakistan don’t interact bilaterally for the reason that 2008 Mumbai terror assault. The Indian authorities, days earlier than Asia Cup, got here out with a coverage to put a blanket ban on bilateral sports activities between the 2 nations even at impartial venues however exempted multi-lateral occasions to make sure that the nation adheres to the Olympic Charter.

Atherton mentioned the 2 nations are being intentionally drawn with one another to money in on the strain that pulls within the crowd and viewership numbers essential for good promoting income.

“This ‘association’ has been tacitly supported throughout the recreation for plenty of causes. The most evident is the shortcoming of each groups, due to political tensions, to satisfy outdoors ICC occasions.

“Cricket on one another’s territory was as soon as the avenue by means of which each nations may speak, however progressively silence has descended.

“ICC events are the only occasions, at present, when the fixture can go ahead and now this must be on neutral territory too — the cause of much debate in the most recent Champions Trophy, when India parked themselves in Dubai for an entire tournament nominally hosted by Pakistan,” he identified.