Ever since the BCCI has conveyed unofficially that they will not be sending the Indian team to Pakistan for Champions Trophy, different possibilities have started to come out in media. A Pakistani journalist from BBN Sports by the name of Ejaz Wasem Bakhri has accused well-known sports journalists Vikrant Gupta and Rahul Rawat from Aajtak’s Sports Tak that they are “afraid” for speaking freely on India’s stance on not sending India to Pakistan for the ICC Event.
Speaking on his Youtube Channel, the journalist claimed “Aapki itni jurrat nhn hai ki aap sach ko sach keh sako. (You don’t have the guts to label something correct as truth.)”
The war of words between the two journalists started when the Pakistani journalist recently shared a video from last year where Vikrant Gupta was opiniating “Security threat you have to prove. Security (threat) you need to prove like Australia and England did in 1996 World Cup. And when England didn’t went to Zimbabwe in 2003 WC, that was because of diplomatic relations.”
For the people who are not aware, Australia and England did not played their 1996 WC matches in Sri Lanka citing security threat and therefore their matches were shifted to India and Pakistan.
“India bataye ki uski team ko Pakistan mein kis tarah ka kya threat hai?” translated to “India should tell about they type of security threat that they have from Pakistan.” The Pakistani journalist opined on his Youtube Channel.
In the video, Vikrant Gupta could be seen opiniating that “Aapko sirf 2 hi provisions hain. Ek aapko security prove karni padti hai ki humein hai threat. Agar aapke ICC tournament aap mana kar do, toh fir aap sanctions ke liye tayar ho jao. India for example, kaise keh dega ki hum nahin jaate ICC tournament.” translated to “There are only two provisions. The first is you have to prove that there is a security threat. And if you deny going to an ICC tournament, then you have to be ready for the sanctions. How will India, for example, will deny going to an ICC tournament?”
Fear of Forfeiting?
While the news in the various outlets says that India has declined going to Pakistan for CT due to security threat, it is observed that the same reason has not been mentioned specifically in the written communication that PCB received from the forwarded email by BCCI through ICC channel.
Few journalists from Pakistan claim that India is deliberately not stating “security” as a reason to avoid visiting Pakistan as that would compel ICC to conduct a review from a third-party independent team as per rule whereas if BCCI would have mentioned “political tensions” with Pakistan as a reason to asks for a hybrid model then it may call for India conceding winning points to the opponent team as per ICC rules.