BCCI - Bullying Controller of Cricket Internationally

Today, on 23rd February 2025, India beat Pakistan by 6 wickets in the ICC Men's Champion's Trophy. A tournament that features the Top 8 Men's cricket teams. A global tournament that is being hosted in Pakistan after 29 years. Cricket fans in Pakistan have been starved of watching their heroes take on the world since many years, and this is finally their chance. But wait! India and Pakistan are playing not in Pakistan but in Dubai. The Indian Government did not give permission to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to travel to Pakistan for the tournament. This decision was (finally) taken on 19th December 2024 less than 2 months before the start of the tournament. The BCCI knew that the tournament would be hosted in Pakistan since November 2021. There hasn't been any drastic deterioration in India-Pakistan relationship since then. India continues to trade with Pakistan, the Indian tennis team travelled to Pakistan to play in the Davis Cup, India's Bridge team went to Pakistan and were treated like royalty, India's External Affairs Minister himself went to Pakistan for a Shanghai Cooperation Conclave meeting. On the other side, Pakistan have been regularly sending their sports teams (hockey, football, athletics) to India. The Men's cricket team themselves came to India for the 2023 ODI World Cup where they got a wonderful welcome in Hyderabad.

Usually, in a global sporting event, if any team decides not to travel to a venue, they are either disqualified or they forfeit points. In fact, the same situation occurred in the 1996 Men's ODI World Cup which was the last global cricket tournament in Pakistan. India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan were the co-hosts. Australia and the West Indies chose not to travel to Sri Lanka citing security concerns. However, this was a different time and different BCCI. India and Pakistan in a terrific show of unity and solidarity played a friendly match against Sri Lanka to show the world that it was safe. But all these rules don't apply now to the BCCI and the International Cricket Council (ICC) does nothing to enforce them. What we get instead is a "hybrid" tournament where only India plays all its matches in Dubai, while the rest of the 7 teams play in Pakistan as well as Dubai (if they are lucky to play India). India gets to prepare a squad specifically for Dubai's slow turning pitches, which they have done by including 5 spinners. Other teams need to figure out a squad that can also apply to the flat wickets in Pakistan. Organizers need to be prepared for multiple venues not just in the group stage but also the final. Fans do not know if the final will happen in Dubai or Lahore. The "hosts" Pakistan will not get to host the final in their new Lahore stadium if India qualifies. India gets to stay put and relax in Dubai for the whole tournament while a team like New Zealand, for example, needs to travel to Karachi, Rawalpindi, Dubai and then to Lahore or Dubai based solely on India's fortunes in the tournament.

This India-specific hybrid model is not new. The same saga took place during the 2023 Men's Asia Cup. Once again, Pakistan was awarded the hosting rights in 2021 by the Asian Cricket Council (ACC). A year later, Jay Shah became the president of the ACC (he is also the current ICC chairman) and said that India will not travel to Pakistan. After threatening to boycott this tournament and/or the 2023 ODI World Cup to be hosted in India, Pakistan agreed for a hybrid model where they would be the official hosts although only 4 matches would be played in Pakistan while 9 would be played in Sri Lanka. The ridiculousness did not stop there. The tournament format was jigged to have a "Super 4" even though there were only 6 teams playing. All this was done so that India and Pakistan get to play each other at least twice, if not thrice. As expected, it rained a lot in Sri Lanka and the first group stage "marquee" match was washed out. There was a good chance that Pakistan would not reach the finals, and there was a threat of rain (obviously) for the Super 4 matches too. Hence, the ACC added a reserve day only for the India v/s Pakistan Super 4 match. This was supremely unfair to Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The statements by their coaches summed up the situation. 

"I haven't seen this kind of thing in another tournament, this changing rules in the middle of the tournament" - Chandika Hathurusinghe

"It's a little surprise when I first heard. But we don't organise the competition, so there's nothing much we can do about that" - Chris Silverwood

The great Ian Chappel who retired from journalism today, once said that the ICC is an event management company. The sad reality is that it does not even do that part properly. So many of the recent ICC Men's Cricket Tournaments feel like they have just two things on their mind:

1. Minimum 1 India v/s Pakistan game has to happen
2. India should go as far ahead in the tournament as possible

This change seems to have happened after the 2007 World Cup when India and Pakistan were knocked out in the group stage. After that, the 2011 and 2015 World Cups had India playing minimum 6 matches. Even this was not enough, so the 2019 and 2023 World Cups had only 10 teams in an all-play-all format, ensuring that India played a minimum of 9 matches. Of course, India and Pakistan have been in the same group in all ICC Men's World Cup since 2003. In addition, in the last few tournaments, the scheduling has "somehow" worked in India's favour so that they get the maximum rest between games, and they play a weak team in the final match of the group stage. In the 2021 T20 World Cup, they played against Namibia, in 2022 against Zimbabwe and against the Netherlands in the 2023 ODI World Cup. 

Personally, all of this leaves me with a horrible taste in my mouth. I cannot and do not want to separate the art from the artist. I still watch the Indian cricket team play whenever and wherever I can, but it is with a strange mix of emotions ranging from happiness, pride, guilt and disconnect. I yearn to watch them again like earlier with passion and zeal. But I also know that I was ignorant. Ignorant of the fact that the BCCI along with being one of the richest sporting bodies in the world is a bully. And like all bullies, I hope they get their comeuppance. Sooner, rather than later.