BCCI official declares Pakistan, India match ‘necessary’

Despite the recent political tension between Pakistan and India, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) official has declared the match between arch-rivals necessary to attract sponsors for the global cricketing events.

He made these comments while responding to former England batter Michael Atherton’s advice to the International Cricket Council (ICC) not to have more India-Pakistan games until the issue is resolved.

“If cricket was once the vehicle for diplomacy, it is now, clearly, a proxy for broader tensions and for propaganda. There is little justification, in any case, for a serious sport to arrange tournament fixtures to suit its economic needs, and now that the rivalry is being exploited in other ways, there is even less justification for it,” Atherton wrote in his column for The Times.

“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,” he further added.

His comments came in the wake of the recent Pakistan-India controversy at the Asia Cup, where they faced each other three times.

India won on all three occasions; however, they not only refused to shake hands with their Pakistani counterparts but also refused to accept the Asia Cup trophy from Asian Cricket Council president Mohsin Naqvi.

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Responding to Atherton’s advice, a BCCI official told Dainik Jagran that such comments are easy to make, but there is no easy solution to this issue.

“It’s easy to talk about all this, but will sponsors and broadcasters agree to it? In today’s situation, if any major team, not just India, withdraws from a tournament, it will be difficult to attract sponsors,” he said.

After having played India four times in the year 2025, first in the ICC Champions Trophy and then three times in the Asia Cup, they are set to star in the ICC T20 World Cup 2026.

India and Pakistan only meet during multilateral tournaments arranged by the ICC as well as the ACC.

Hence, leaving bilaterals out of the quotient, their match always grab global attention, and is a hot cake for the broadcasters.

Despite, India being the host nation, Pakistan will play their matches in Sri Lanka, since they have a deal not to play on each other’s soil.