Abhishek Sharma and Haris Rauf in action during IND vs PAK game. (FILE photo)
The Pakistan Government have announced that they will be boycotting the game against India in the upcoming T20 World Cup 2026 to be played at Colombo. However, what are the implications for the Pakistan cricket board if they did not play that game? Former ICC Head of Communications Sami-ul-Hasan Burney said the game will cost USD 250, and Pakistan’s annual revenue is 35.5 USD million if there were to be sanctions and was hopeful that the cost was taken into consideration.
“I am sure an extensive exercise would have taken place before the government of Pakistan made that decision. As regards the sanctions or the losses you are talking about, that one match is costing USD 250 million (everything accounted for not just broadcaster’s loss),” Burney was quoted as saying to PTI.
“Pakistan’s annual revenue is USD 35.5 million, so there is a big, big difference,” he added.
Ever since Bangladesh put in a request to move its matches from India to Sri Lanka citing security concerns and failed, Pakistan had been protesting against the decision. In a show of support to the Bangladesh Cricket Board, they voted in favour of their request in the ICC board meeting and Naqvi even threatened to boycott the tournament. When Bangladesh refused to play their matches in India, they were eventually replaced by Scotland for the tournament.
Burney also worked as PCB’s Media Director till last year and revealed how PCB was informed by ICC that India would not be playing in the Champions Trophy in November by ICC (India played all their games of the tournament in Dubai).
Burney called the approach from ICC “shifting of goalposts. I refer back to November, 2024, when I was a part of the Pakistan Cricket Board, and I was with Mr Mohsin Naqvi, when that e-mail came in which the ICC said the BCCI has informed them that the Indian government has refused permission to send their team to Pakistan.
“Mr. Naqvi believes when a similar situation arose in January (with regards Bangladesh), the same principles were not applied, and that is where he is referring to the double standards,” said Burney.
Stay updated with the latest sports news across Cricket, Football, Chess, and more. Catch all the action with real-time live cricket score updates and in-depth coverage of ongoing matches.
