Former Pakistan cricketer Javed Miandad has come down heavily on India for refusing to take part in Asia Cup which is slated to be held in Pakistan in September 2023.
“India can go to hell if they don’t want to come to Pakistan to play cricket. I’ve always backed Pakistan. And you know that I don’t leave spare India whenever an issue arises. But the thing is we need to look at our part. And we should fight for it. We don’t care because we are getting to host our cricket,” he is quoted as telling at an event.
Miandad is a relative of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, who is wanted by Indian authorities for his role in the 1993 bomb blasts in Mumbai. The cricketer’s daughter is reportedly married to the gangster’s son.
Javed claimed that the International Cricket Council should handle this issue failing which there is no need for a governing body for cricket.
“This is ICC’s job. If ICC can’t control this there’s no use of the governing body. They need to implement similar rules for every team. If teams like these don’t come, they should be debarred. India hoga, apne liye hoga. Hmare liye nahi hai,” Miandad said.
Continuing his attack, Javed Miandad claimed that India is scared of losing to Pakistan. “Come and play. Why don’t they? They run. For them it becomes a trouble if they come here and lose to us. The public there can’t stomach it. It’s always been the case. During our time, they used to not play because of the same reason. Riots and fighting take place there. The crowd there is very nasty. You would’ve seen whenever India loses, to anyone, the crowd there burns down houses. When we used to play, they had faced such troubles,” he added.
He then attacked the cricket-loving Indian crowd and said, “They are worst losers. The public there need to understand. Cricket is a sport. If you don’t play well, you deserve to lose. If I play well, I deserve to win. Rather you go into other things. What good is that? I say this to the ICC, if anyone does resort to such ways, ICC need to be strict. If you’re India, so what? If any country behaves this way, ICC need to take action. Such teams should be removed to learn a lesson.”
However, it is funny that Miandad is pointing at Indian crowd when there are several instances of similar behaviour from the cricket lovers in Pakistan. To recall one such incident, Pakistan fans staged a mock funeral and burned effigies of cricketer Misbah-ul-Haq over its disastrous start to their World Cup campaign in 2015. Likewise, eggs were thrown at the cricketers earlier when they had lost to India in 1996 World Cup.
Coming back to Asia Cup, Asian Cricket Council President and BCCI secretary Jay Shah made it clear last October that India will play Asia Cup next year at a neutral venue. “We have decided to play at a neutral venue,” Shah was quoted as saying by multiple cricket websites afterthe conclusion of BCCI AGM.
India and Pakistan, the archrivals, only play each other in Asia Cup and global events due to political tensions between the two countries.
