New Delhi: Amidst calls from across the country to boycott the Asia Cup India-Pakistan cricket match, scheduled to be played in Dubai on Sunday, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) seems to have worked out a strategy to remain ‘invisible’ during the event.
According to NDTV, most BCCI officials will not be attending the match in Dubai despite India being the official hosts. With Pakistan refusing to play in India following Operation Sindoor, the matches were shifted to the UAE. The channel has quoted a report that claims that no BCCI official has reached Dubai till Saturday.
Only one official is expected to be present at the stadium on match day.
This decision was reportedly taken after fans expressed their displeasure over the match against Pakistan. A sustained campaign is underway to boycott the match against the country involved in the ghastly terror attack on tourists in Pahalgam.
During the Champions Trophy match between India and Pakistan earlier this year in Dubai, all top BCCI officials and representatives of several state cricket boards were present at the venue.
The report quoted by NDTV said that only Rajiv Shukla may attend the match as a member of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC). International Cricket Council (ICC) chairman Jay Shah or BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia are unlikely to be present.
Among those who have called for a boycott is Aishanya Dwivedi, widow of Shubham Dwivedi – one of the 26 people killed in the Pahalgam terror attack. She criticised the BCCI and Team India cricketers for their stance, questioning their patriotism.
She implored fans to “not go to watch” the fixture and “not switch on your TV for this.”
“The BCCI should not have accepted a match between India and Pakistan. I think the BCCI is not sentimental towards those 26 families. What are our cricketers doing? Cricketers are said to be nationalists. It is viewed as our national game. Except for one-two cricket players, nobody offered to support boycotting the match against Pakistan. BCCI cannot compel them to play at gunpoint. They should take a stand for their country. Yet, they refuse to do so,” she said.
The Indian government has a clear policy on this. Teams can compete against Pakistan in multilateral tournaments like the Asia Cup, but bilateral ties will continue to remain severed.
