‘Easy to talk’- BCCI official says sponsors and broadcaster won’t agree to no IND v PAK matches in ICC events

A BCCI official has reportedly responded to former England captain Michael Atherton’s suggestion to reduce or completely halt India–Pakistan encounters in ICC and ACC tournaments until relations between the two nations improve.

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Atherton’s remarks came in the wake of recent incidents during the Asia Cup 2025, where Indian players declined to shake hands with their Pakistani counterparts and later refused to accept the trophy from ACC chief Mohsin Naqvi—who also serves as Pakistan’s Interior Minister and the head of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB)—after defeating them in the final.

In his column for The Times, Atherton urged the International Cricket Council (ICC) to refrain from scheduling India–Pakistan matches until the situation stabilizes. 

“If cricket was once a vehicle for diplomacy, it has now become a proxy for broader tensions and propaganda. There is little justification for serious sport to arrange fixtures purely for financial gain. Since the rivalry is being exploited in other ways, there’s even less reason to continue this approach. For the next broadcast cycle, ICC event fixtures should be drawn transparently—and if that means India and Pakistan don’t meet every time, so be it,” he wrote.

BCCI official reacts to Michael Atherton’s call for no IND v PAK match

Responding to Atherton’s comments, a BCCI official said the matter isn’t as simple as it sounds. 

“It’s easy to talk about such things, but will sponsors and broadcasters agree to it? In today’s context, if any major team—let alone India—opts out of a tournament, it becomes very difficult to attract sponsors,” the official told Dainik Jagran.

India and Pakistan have not played a bilateral series since 2012–13, and their last Test match dates back to 2007. The two teams now face each other only in multilateral ICC and ACC competitions.

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