Will Respect Govt Decision: Virat On India-Pak World Cup Game

New Delhi: Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli on Saturday said his team will abide with whatever decision the government takes with respect to playing with Pakistan during the world cup in England this June.

“Our stand is simple. We stick by what the nation wants to do and what the BCCI decides to do and that is basically our opinion,” skipper Kohli said on the eve of India’s opening T20 International against Australia on Sunday.

“Whatever the government and the board decide, we will eventually go by that and will respect that. So that is our stand on this particular issue,” Kohli added.

On Friday, the Committee of Administrators-run BCCI decided against taking any stand on the World Cup clash against Pakistan but urged the ICC and other nations to sever ties with countries from where ‘terrorism emanates.’

“The 16th of June is very far away. We will take a call on that much later and in consultation with the government,” CoA chief Vinod Rai had said on Friday. “We must sever ties with nations from which such terrorism emanates. We will express our concern on an appropriate forum.”

The cricketing fraternity itself is divided on playing with Pakistan at the world cup. While Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar have urging India to play and beat Pakistan denying them any leeway in the tournament, former skipper Sourav Ganguly and former spin bowler Harbhajan Singh have called for a boycott of sporting ties with the neighbouring country.

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Meanwhile, Kohli has asked his teammates to avoid taking extra pressure in the T20 championship matches beginning on Sunday and reserve their best for the ensuing world cup. He has suggested the members to even take some games off to maintain to develop fatigues. He has asked them not to drift too much from their ODI game plan during the seven-week league that ends on 12 May. India plays their opening World Cup game against South Africa on 5 June in Southampton, exactly 23 days after IPL ends.

“They have to make sure that their games don’t go (drift) too much away from the one-day mould of things. That means we will have to be very wary of the bad habits that might creep in during the IPL,” Kohli told reporters ahead of their first T20I against Australia.