‘Let them play without Pakistan’ – PCB Chairman Ramiz Raja threatens to pull out of ODI World cup next year
Pakistan Cricket Board Chief Ramiz Raja has threatened to pull out of the ODI World Cup next year scheduled to take place in India If India doesn’t visit Pakistan for the Asia Cup 2023. The Asia cup will be held just before the ODI World Cup next year. Raja said that Pakistan have been performing well for the past year where they have defeated India twice and also reached the final of the 20-20 World Cup recently.
“Our position is blunt that if they (Indian team) come then we will go to the World Cup, if they don’t come then let them do it. Let them play without Pakistan. If Pakistan does not participate in the World Cup scheduled in India next year, who will see it? We will adopt an aggressive approach, our team is showing performance, we have defeated the biggest business-making cricket team in the world, we have played the final of the 20-20 World Cup,” Raja was quoted as saying by Urdu News.
“I have always said that we have to improve the economy of Pakistan cricket and that will only happen when our team performs well, we have done it in the 2021 20-20 World Cup. Beat India, we beat India in the Asia Cup, Pakistan cricket team has beaten the board of billion dollar economy twice in one year,” Ramiz Raja was quoted as saying by Urdu News,” he added.
England to tour Pakistan for three tests in December
Notably, Pakistan last hosted a multi-nation event way back in 2009 when they were the hosts of the Asia Cup. Things turned ugly for Pakistan as teams stopped touring the nation after a terrorist attack on the Sri Lanka team, outside the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, in 2009.
International cricket returned to Pakistan after six years when Zimbabwe toured the country for a three-match ODI series in 2015. Sri Lanka, too, returned after the horrors of 2009 and lent a helping hand in 2017, touring Pakistan only for a solitary ODI.
Since then, several teams have toured Pakistan, including Australia earlier this year. England will be in Pakistan next month to play three Tests, starting December 1.
