Don't bring politics in cricket: Former PCB chairman warns India

Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB’s) former chairman Khalid Mehmood warned India against bringing politics into cricket while urging the country’s cricket board to take this matter up with the International Cricket Council (ICC) in a repetitive fashion.

Mehmood believed that the PCB should demonstrate its diplomatic ability by getting teams to tour the country after the Men in Green had done the same in these times of crisis.

“Currently we might get South Africa for a tour. England is on the cards as well since we have done so much for them with our last tour. We might be going again in the future. We should now demonstrate our diplomatic abilities. It is no joke if we are going to play cricket with coronavirus and all the other problems it brings and other teams don’t come here to play. The old excuse of terrorism is no longer in play. I think if the PCB can use these circumstances in an adequate manner, then we should have a normal relation with all other teams,” Mehmood said.

“Except for India, whose issues are based on political problems. The PCB should take a strong stance about this as well and should raise this matter in the ICC again and again that if they [India] want to pursue politics than they should say farewell to cricket,” he added.

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The former chairman also questioned the mindset behind making the country’s best batsman Babar Azam the captain of all formats of the national side in a hasty manner.

“Babar is a world-class batsman and there is no doubt about it. I currently see only one batsman in the side. Was it necessary to put so many responsibilities on such an important player? We have seen that many countries who tried this had to go back on their plans. Sachin Tendulkar is an example. Not many batsmen have played at his level in the history of cricket. They made him captain and it affected his batting. Than someone else had to take over. Ian Botham is a similar example along with many others. I don’t think the board should have taken this decision in such haste but they had they were boxed in a corner since Azhar Ali was not getting the job done,” he said.

“The institutional weakness is quite evident in these problems. If your regional and domestic cricket was up to the mark then you would have at least four to five players ready to assume the leadership role,” he added.