The ODI World Cup 2023 is to be held in India in October-November. There is less than four months left for the start of this tournament, but till now the schedule of the tournament has not been released. The Pakistan team's participation in this tournament has not been confirmed yet. Apart from this, Pakistan has also demanded a change in the draft schedule. For this reason, the schedule of the World Cup has not been released yet. PCB officials say that the decision of whether their team will play in India or not is in the hands of the government. Now Pakistan's Foreign Ministry has spoken on this matter for the first time.

Pakistan's foreign ministry has confirmed that it is evaluating all aspects of Pakistan's participation in the upcoming ODI World Cup in India. Some time ago, the ICC had sent the draft schedule of the World Cup to the cricket boards of all the countries. In response, the PCB had said that only after the permission of the government, it would be able to decide whether to send its team to India or not.


A Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesman said, "We have received an official invitation from the Indian Prime Minister for the meeting of the heads of state of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization on July 4." Foreign Affairs Secretary Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said at a weekly media briefing in Islamabad. "Pakistan will be represented at the summit. We will make an announcement regarding our participation in the coming days."

He further said "With regard to cricket, Pakistan is of the view that politics should not be mixed with sports. India's policy of not playing cricket in Pakistan is disappointing. We are monitoring all aspects related to our participation in the World Cup." and are evaluating them, including the security situation in Pakistan." The cricketer and we will present our views to the PCB at the appropriate time."

According to media reports, the 2023 World Cup will start from October 5. The India-Pakistan match will be held in Ahmedabad on October 15. It is one of the five grounds where Pakistan has to play league matches. Due to strained political relations between the two countries, Pakistan has not toured India since the 2016 T20 World Cup and even then there was uncertainty about Pakistan's tour of India. The PCB had threatened to pull out of the tournament if it did not receive clear and public assurances from the Indian government about the security it would provide to its players. These talks eventually resulted in the India-Pakistan match being shifted from Dharamsala to Kolkata.

The PCB has requested the ICC to swap the venues for its two league matches in the 2023 ODI World Cup based on an internal assessment of the grounds on which they are to be played. Pakistan are currently scheduled to play Australia in Bengaluru on October 20 and then Afghanistan in Chennai on October 23, but have sought a change as they want to play Afghanistan in Bengaluru and Australia in Chennai. PCB's demand has been turned down. Normally, grounds are changed at an ICC event due to security reasons, but the PCB did not mention any security threat in its internal assessment.

Usually the World Cup schedule is released a year before the start of the tournament. This happened in the 2015 and 2019 World Cups as well. Now the World Cup schedule is expected to be released within a week. Pakistan will have to clear its stand before this and all concerns related to playing in India will have to be put before the ICC and BCCI.

(pc amarujala)