Islamabad
\nThe chairman of Pakistan\u2019s cricket board is demanding his side\u2019s World Cup games are moved out of host country India if their arch-rivals refuse to travel to Pakistan for September\u2019s Asia Cup, a report said Friday.
\nArrangements for the one-day international World Cup, which is due to start in October, remain shrouded in mystery, with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) so far failing to release a match schedule or list of venues.
\nIt is an extraordinary situation less than six months before the start of a quadrennial global sporting tournament.
\nHow to accommodate Pakistan appears to be at the heart of the delay, with the nuclear-armed neighbours \u2014 both of them cricket-obsessed, but who have fought multiple wars since independence from Britain in 1947 \u2014 mired in diplomatic disputes.
\nPakistan is itself hosting the Asia Cup, another 50-over tournament, in September, in which India normally participates.
\nBut the BCCI \u2014 the world\u2019s richest and most powerful cricket body \u2014 has refused to travel to Pakistan for several years citing both the diplomatic tensions and the country\u2019s challenging security situation.
\nIt wants its Asia Cup games moved out of Pakistan \u2014 and Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Najam Sethi demanded a reciprocal arrangement for the World Cup in an interview with The Indian Express newspaper on Friday. \u201cIf India now wants to have a neutral venue and accepts the hybrid model, then we\u2019ll use the same hybrid model in the World Cup,\u201d he said.
\nPakistan would be willing to play their World Cup games in Bangladesh or any other venue acceptable to India, he said, calling it \u201ca model that goes forward and resolves this political logjam\u201d between the two countries.
\nThe BCCI is headed by Jay Shah, the son of India\u2019s powerful home minister Amit Shah.
\nBut Sethi, a former journalist turned cricket administrator, called on the Indian cricket body to \u201cstand up\u201d to New Delhi and insist on being allowed to travel to Pakistan as \u201cit cannot cite security as an issue anymore\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Islamabad The chairman of Pakistan\u2019s cricket board is demanding his side\u2019s World Cup games are moved out of host country India if their arch-rivals refuse to travel to Pakistan for September\u2019s Asia Cup, a report said Friday. Arrangements for the one-day international World Cup, which is due to start in October, remain shrouded in mystery, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330878,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-330856","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n