By Shreyasi Talukdar March 2, 2025
Former Pakistan captain Inzamam ul Haq urged other boards to come together and boycott the Indian Premier League. He took a dig at the BCCI amidst the controversy in the Champions Trophy. While Pakistan is hosting the entire tournament, Indian team is playing the matches at Dubai citing security issues in the neighbouring country.
The Indian government did not give permission to the Indian cricket team to play the Champions Trophy matches in Pakistan due to political tension and security reasons. This gave birth to a major controversy even before the tournament. Following this, Indians are playing all their matches at just one venue in Dubai while others are flying between Pakistan and Dubai. Inzamam ul Haq therefore asked all cricket boards to boycott the IPL and reminded them how the BCCI do not allow their players to participate in other overseas leagues.
“Keep aside the Champions Trophy. Top players participate in IPL but Indian players don’t participate in other leagues. Other boards should stop sending their players to IPL. If you Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) don’t release your players for leagues, then other boards should take a stance,” he said speaking on a Pakistani TV channel.
Indian cricketers under the BCCI contract are not allowed to participate in overseas leagues unless they announce retirement from Indian cricket. The participants later will also not be allowed to return to the BCCI-hosted events like IPL.
As the Champions Trophy progressed, more and more former players and experts started questioning India’s advantage. Both Australia and South Africa had to fly to the United Arab Emirates to prepare for the possible Champions Trophy semifinal match against India.
Today’s India vs New Zealand match will decide who would play in the semifinal against India between Australia and South Africa. If India beat New Zealand, they will take on Australia. If India lose, they will play the semifinal against South Africa. Interestingly, based on the situation, one of the two sides have to fly back to Pakistan from Dubai ahead of the other semifinal against New Zealand.
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