Pakistan appears to be having sleepless nights about India’s might in the cricketing world. Couple of days after Pakistan Cricket Board president Ramiz Raja, country’s Prime Minister Imran Khan also mentioned India’s domination over the world of cricket.
Imran also happens to be the Patron-in-Chief of the Pakistan Cricket Board.
“Money is a big player now for the players, as well as for the cricket boards. The money lies in India, so basically, India controls world cricket now. I mean, they do, whatever they say goes. No one would dare do that to India because they know that the sums involved, India can sort of produce much more money,” Imran told Middle East Eye in an interview.
Khan was asked to comment on the England and Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) decision to pull out of their recent Pakistan tour. He said that he had seen the evolution of Pakistan-England cricket ties over the years.
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“I think that there is still this feeling in England that they do a great favour to play with countries like Pakistan,” he added. “One of the reasons is that, obviously, the money,” Khan said.
He then added that the Board of Control for Cricket in India is the richest cricket body in the world and so, no other country would dare to do to India what England did to Pakistan.
“Money is a big player now for the players, as well as for the cricket boards. The money lies in India, so basically, India controls world cricket now. I mean, they do, whatever they say goes. No one would dare do that to India because they know that the sums involved, India can sort of produce much more money,” he opined.
“I think England let itself down,” Khan added.
Recently after New Zealand pulled out at the last minute from its Pakistan tour citing security concerns, the ECB had also scrapped their short tour to Pakistan a couple of days later.
Commenting on their decision, the ECB had said: “We understand that this decision will be a significant disappointment to the PCB, who have worked tirelessly to host the return of international cricket in their country.”
The England’s men and women teams were scheduled to play two T20Is in Rawalpindi on October 13 and 14. The women’s team were also due to play three ODIs in Pakistan on October 17, 19, and 21.
Before England, the New Zealand Cricket (NZC) had announced to abandon their Pakistan tour due to security concerns just few minutes before the first of the three ODIs in Rawalpindi.
Earlier last week, Ramiz Raja had stated that if India wanted Pakistan cricket could collapse. Backing is observation, Raja had added that the BCB gets 50% of its revenue from the International Cricket Council, which gets 90% of its earnings from India.
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