Former England captain Michael Atherton believes that fixtures at ICC events should no longer be “arranged” to make sure that India and Pakistan meet at every tournament after the animosity and controversy that erupted between the two teams at last month’s Asia Cup.
India played Pakistan thrice at the continental event, including in the final, but skipper Suryakumar Yadav decided not to shake hands with his Pakistani counterpart, Salman Agha, in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack and India’s subsequent retaliatory strikes.
That triggered a chain of politically charged events on the cricket field that included a few Pakistan players making controversial gestures in the middle of a game, and India’s refusal to take the trophy from Pakistan interior minister and cricket board chief Mohsin Naqvi. At their ODI Women’s World Cup fixture in Colombo on Sunday, skippers of both teams once again refused to shake hands.
In his column for The Times newspaper in the UK, Atherton acknowledged that there are both economic and diplomatic reasons as to why the ICC makes sure India and Pakistan play each other in international events (the two sides have played each other in the group stage at each of the 11 ICC events that have taken place since 2013).
“Despite its scarcity (maybe, in part, because of its scarcity) it is a fixture that carries huge economic clout, one of the main reasons why the broadcast rights for ICC tournaments are worth so much — roughly $3 billion for the most recent rights cycle (in) 2023-27,” he wrote. “Due to the relative decline in the value of bilateral matches, ICC events have grown in frequency and importance, and so the India and Pakistan fixture is crucial to the balance sheets of those who would not otherwise have any skin in the game.”
But the former England skipper said that after the “antics” at the Asia Cup, it is time to put an end to this “tacitly supported arrangement.”
“If cricket was once the vehicle for diplomacy, it is now, clearly, a proxy for broader tensions and for propaganda. There is little justification, in any case, for a serious sport to arrange tournament fixtures to suit its economic needs and now that the rivalry is being exploited in other ways, there is even less justification for it,” Atherton wrote.
“For the next broadcast rights cycle, the fixture draw before ICC events should be transparent and if the two teams do not meet every time, so be it,” he added.
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