Teams including India, Pakistan have signed agreement for ICC events, says Dave Richardson

Ever since the Pulwama terror attack there have been growing demands across India to boycott the game against Pakistan in the upcoming ICC Cricket World Cup in England and Wales. The two teams are scheduled to meet on June 16 during the prestigious event in Manchester. Earlier, the Committee of Administrators (CoA) which is currently running the BCCI wrote a letter to the global body asking it to stop ties with countries from where “terrorism emanates”.

However, the ICC CEO Richardson has made it clear that the national bodies are bound by an agreement which ensures their participation in the entire tournament which means India and Pakistan both have to play all the games of the World Cup as per the agreement with the global council.

“For ICC events, all teams have signed a members’ participation agreement which requires them to participate in all the matches of the tournament and [in case of] any unjustified non-compliance with that provision, the playing conditions will kick in and the points will be awarded accordingly [to the other team],” Richardson was quoted as saying by PTI.

In another controversial issue regarding the Indian team wearing camouflage military caps during the Ranchi ODI against Australia, the ICC CEO has clarified that it was a one-off incident and the Indian cricket board had the permission of wearing the caps during that game as a mark of respect to the Indian Armed Forces. The players also donated the match fee to the National Defence Fund during the third ODI earlier this month. 

Pakistan, on the other hand, had accused the BCCI that it was politicising the gentleman’s game by wearing the military caps and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB)  had written a letter to the ICC regarding this as well.

 “In this case, it was a one-off consent. It was granted subject to the message around the wearing of the caps simply being sympathy with the people, who had lost their lives in the attack and in particular, to help them raise funds for the families of the people who had lost their lives. The ICC’s motto is clear we don’t want to mix politics with sports,” the ICC CEO clarified.