The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) experienced a massive blow last month when New Zealand abandoned their limited-overs tour minutes before the first ODI in Rawalpindi. At that moment, New Zealand Cricket (NZC) revealed they received a ‘credible threat’ to the team and hence decided to call off the tour.
Later, England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) followed the footsteps of NZC and denied sending their Men’s and Women’s teams to Pakistan for a scheduled tour in October. This decision attracted a lot of criticism from PCB as well as many former Pakistan cricketers.
However, Pakistan’ minister of Information and Broadcasting, Fawad Chaudhry, came up with a twist blaming neighbours India for all the mess. He had claimed that the threat to the Kiwi team was originated from India.
“The email [containing the security threats] was sent from an associated device in India using VPN, showing IP address location of Singapore,” Fawad had said.
Now, a senior BCCI official has denied India’s involvement in the cancellation of the England and New Zealand tour to Pakistan.
“We wish Ramiz Raja good luck that Pakistan cricket reaches new heights under him. We want to clear one thing that the BCCI has no role in the cancellation of England and New Zealand tour to Pakistan,” the official said as quoted by Cricket Pakistan.
Further, the official also raised questions on some of the former Pakistan players approach of blaming the Indian Premier League (IPL) for such chaos. He criticised PCB chairman Ramiz Raja for his statement where the ex-international player had accused Australian players of giving preference to the IPL.
The official urged PCB not to drag India everywhere.
“I don’t know why some ex-Pakistan players are cursing the IPL for no reason? I read somewhere that Raja said that the Aussie players have even changed their DNA for the sake of the money they make by playing in the IPL. He accused Aussies of playing happily against India without their usual aggressive approach. We understand that you are feeling bad, but there is no need to drag India everywhere,” the official added.
