Pakistan on Sunday said they will not play India in this month’s T20 Cricket World Cup, as political tensions in South Asia spill over into the sporting arena.
“The Pakistan cricket team shall not take the field in the match scheduled on 15th February 2026 against India,” the government in Islamabad said in a statement posted on X.
The statement did not elaborate on the reasons for the boycott, but said that the team will be allowed to play other nations.
Photo: EPA
Most of the tournament is to take place in India, with some matches, including Pakistan’s, being played in Sri Lanka.
Islamabad’s decision follows comments made just days earlier by Pakistani Minister of Interior and Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Mohsin Naqvi, who expressed displeasure over Bangladesh being barred from the tournament.
Last month, cricket’s governing body announced that Scotland would replace Bangladesh at the World Cup after the South Asian nation refused to play matches in India, citing security concerns.
The tensions in cricket mirror strained relations between India and its neighbors. Ties between Dhaka and New Delhi have been poor since the 2024 ouster of then-Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who remains in exile in India. Tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad also plunged to a new low last year, when the two nuclear-armed rivals came close to an all-out war after gunmen killed Indian tourists in Kashmir. Meanwhile, relations between Pakistan and Bangladesh have been warming.
“An injustice is being done to Bangladesh,” Naqvi told reporters last week, referring to the International Cricket Council (ICC) decision.
“Bangladesh is at the same level as Pakistan and India, so they deserve to be heard,” he said.
Bangladesh had asked the ICC to relocate its matches from India to Sri Lanka, but the cricket governing body said it found no “credible or verifiable threat” to the safety of the Bangladesh team in India.
On Pakistan’s stance, the ICC said on Sunday that the nation’s board would need to consider the “significant and long-term implications for cricket in its own country,” adding that the decision was likely to affect the global cricket ecosystem, of which Pakistan is a member and beneficiary.
