“For India and ICC, it’s a disaster” - Former England cricketer on Pakistan boycotting India game in T20 WC 2026

Former England cricketer and commentator Mark Butcher has shared his two cents on the ongoing controversy between ICC and PCB ahead of the forthcoming ICC T20 World Cup 2026 campaign, scheduled to start on Saturday, February 7, in India and Sri Lanka.

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Notably, the Pakistan government has decided to boycott its group stage match against India in the mega event, scheduled to take place on Sunday, February 15, in Colombo, without providing a proper reason.

Speaking exclusively on the Stick to Cricket Podcast, the former English cricketer stated that this decision is going to be a disaster for India, who are co-hosting the showpiece event. Interestingly, if the India vs Pakistan match doesn’t go ahead as per schedule, there would be an estimated loss of INR 2200 Crore.

“Now Pakistan are in a situation, they are sort of a younger brother or a cousin of India and India pretty much gets its own way. It’s the most powerful and the wealthiest country in the world of cricket. And therefore, Pakistan basically have to suck it up. So when they had the Champions Trophy in Pakistan, you could see it coming from a mile off. That India were not going to go and play in Pakistan. So everything got rearranged and this is where my biggest problem comes in. When this stuff happens, it affects all of the other teams in the tournament because all of a sudden their program has to change, they have to fly out of the country to go and meet India in a place they want to play and everybody else has to fit in,” he said in the Stick To Cricket podcast.

“They’ve (Pakistan) turned around and said okay we still want to be involved in the tournament. However, we are not going to play against India because what you have done with Bangladesh. You had the opportunity to play our Champions League that should have been in Pakistan and Dubai. You have not afforded the Bangladesh the same courtesy. And therefore in sort of a brotherhood with our Muslim cousins, we are not gonna play against you. And for India, that’s a disaster. Or for ICC, it’s a disaster because of the size, financially of that fixture,” he added.

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