The impasse over the India-Pakistan T20 World Cup blockbuster clash slated for Sunday in Colombo is close to being resolved. During lengthy three-way discussions between the International Cricket Council (ICC), the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), and the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) on Sunday night in Lahore, a workable solution was charted out, an ICC board director aware of the matter told HT.
The ICC was yet to formally clarify the status of the India-Pakistan match.
PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi indicated a softening of their stance in a press conference in Lahore on Monday evening.
“When you have a guest (ICC) coming home, we have learnt that you have to be respectful. When someone comes on their own, you forget a lot of things,” he replied to a query about whether they had been firm in their negotiations with the ICC.
“The issue was about Bangladesh. We had to make sure their point of view was not compromised. Things (talks) are going on. ICC and Bangladesh Cricket Board (talks) are at a stage where my saying anything more would not be appropriate,” Naqvi added.
“It is agreed that no financial, sporting or administrative penalty will be imposed on Bangladesh Cricket Board in relation to the current matter,” ICC said in a statement
“As part of this understanding, an agreement has been reached that Bangladesh will host an ICC event prior to the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2031, subject to the usual ICC hosting processes, timelines and operational requirements,” the statement added.
The BCB have already been named co-hosts of the 2031 ODI World Cup with India and will retain the rights, security permitting.
How the deadlock started
Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif put out a social media post on Feb 1 directing the Pakistan team not to take the field in the World Cup match against India. Sharif later told his cabinet that the post was to show solidarity with the Bangladesh Cricket Board, which was voted out of the competition after their demand to shift matches away from India to Sri Lanka for security reasons was rejected.
By late Monday evening, even the BCB president Aminual Islam issued a press release thanking the PCB and requesting them to play the India match “for the benefit of the entire cricket Ecosystem”.
“The PCB came to the meeting with a long list on the negotiating table but was only half serious about some of their demands,” the director said.
Among the demands raised by the PCB was a tri-series between India, Pakistan and Bangladesh to compensate the BCB for their World Cup non-participation. The BCB also sought confirmation of India’s bilateral white-ball series in Bangladesh, scheduled later in 2026. For both demands, the ICC advised the parties to reach out to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), as bilateral and tri-series understandings were outside the ICC’s purview.
To give themselves some takeaway after agreeing to reverse their strong stance, the PCB strongly pitched for the BCB to be compensated in some form.
Broadly, the PCB is known not to have been adversarial in their negotiations after realizing they were on weak legal ground. After they invoked force majeure – a legal measure that excuses a party from performing their obligations in the face of an unforeseeable event (a government directive, here)—the ICC wrote back asking them about the steps they had taken to mitigate force majeure.
The PCB had taken no such steps, basing their strategy solely on the refusal of government permission for not playing India. In their communication to the PCB, the ICC also outlined the conditions under which force majeure can realistically and legitimately be invoked. There was further mention of the evidentiary threshold required for non-participation besides outlining the sporting, commercial, and governance implications of such a step.
Effectively, the PCB faced the threat of bearing commercial losses from a no show in the India match, losing their share of ICC revenue and facing isolation in the cricket community.
The ICC allowed the PCB the optical leverage of conducting talks in Lahore and deputed Imran Khwaja, Deputy Chair to talk. This was considering the high stakes at play given the commercial worth of an India-Pakistan tie to any ICC event. Market estimates suggest that, inclusive of media rights, advertising revenue and ticket sales, this match alone could account for about 20% of an ICC men’s world event.The PCB was facing pressure from a number of ICC member boards who questioned their decision to boycott the money-spinning India match.
