Rajeev Shukla clears position regarding India-Pakistan matches: The IPL chairman made his stance clear and talked about the World Cup match.
There were bleak chances of India and Pakistan playing each other in a bilateral tie in the near future. The recently-held attacks in Pulwama have further reduced the chances of the same happening.
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Forget bilateral ties, apprehensions have started to build over the arch-rivals facing each other in the upcoming ICC Cricket World Cup 2019. India and Pakistan are slated to lock horns in the world event on June 16 this year.
In a recent interaction with the media, IPL chairman Rajiv Shukla cleared the Indian board’s position by saying that the Indian team will only play against Pakistan if the government will allow it to.
“Government’s nod is necessary”
“Our position is very clear. Unless government gives us nod, we are not going to play with Pakistan. Sports should be above all these things but if somebody is sponsoring terrorism, obviously it will affect sports also,” Shukla was quoted as saying.
With no bilateral series scheduled between both the countries, the immediate focus comes down to the World Cup. On being asked about the status of the same, Shukla put in on the the time to come. “That we can’t tell you know right now. World cup is far away. We will see what happens,” he said.
If India decide to not play Pakistan in the world event, the match is most likely to be awarded to Pakistan. With it being a difficult result in the league state itself, one wonders what would be the Indian team’s stance when it comes to facing Pakistan in a knockout match in the same tournament.
“Pakistan should be vary of these things”
Shukla also pointed out the outrage among people which has followed the attacks. Other than the common people of the country, a lot Indian cricketers have also expressed their grief on social media platform Twitter.
“This is the outrage of the people which is reflecting in these ways. Obviously people will react like this. Pakistan should be vary of these things. They should not support terrorism. We have been saying this from day one. When our government was there, we gave tons of documents about their involvement. They should realise this,” Shukla added.
