Former captain of England, Michael Atherton, has urged the International Cricket Council (ICC) to intentionally plan matches that guarantee that India and Pakistan face each other in every major tournament.
Atherton’s comments came in the aftermath of tension and controversy that followed last month’s Asia Cup, where the two arch rivals met three times, also in the final.
The event was marred by heated fairs and unsporting gestures from both sides, while the Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav also refused to shake hands with his Pakistani counterpart, Salman Agha.
The hostility reached beyond the men’s event, while the skippers of both women’s teams, Fatima Sana and HarmanPrreet Kaur, also avoided after their ODI World Cup competition in Colombo in Colombo on Sunday.
In his column for De Tijd (VK), Atherton wrote that the decision of the ICC to plan India-Pakistan competitions in worldwide tournaments has strong commercial and diplomatic motivations.
The two teams have confronted each other in the group stage of all 11 ICC events that have been held since 2013.
“Despite his rarity – or perhaps because of it – the competition is wearing enormous economic influence,” wrote Atherton.
“It is one of the main reasons why ICC tournament -broadcasting rights are so high, about $ 3 billion for the cycle of 2023–27,” he added.
He also noted that with bilateral cricket loses financial value, ICC events have become in importance, making the India-Pakistan a crucial factor for broadcasters and stakeholders.
However, the former skipper in England argued that the competition has now become a platform for political and emotional representation instead of sporting competition.
“If Cricket was once a vehicle for diplomacy, it has now clearly become a proxy for wider tensions and propaganda,” Atherton explained.
“There is little justification for a serious sport to manipulate tournament luminaires, purely for economic advantage. Given how rivalry is exploited, there is even less reason to continue this practice.”
The 57-year-old concluded by encouraging the ICC to guarantee transparency in future tournament drawing.
“For the next cycle of the broadcasting rights, the drawing must be transparent – and if India and Pakistan will not meet every time, it is so.”
