Atherton demands end to "neatly arranged" Indo-Pak clashes in ICC events

LONDON: Alleging that draws have been "neatly arranged" to ensure India-Pakistan clashes in ICC tournaments for "economic needs", former England captain Michael Atherton has called for a complete halt to cricket between the two bitter rivals as sport has become a "proxy for broader tensions and propaganda".

In a scathing column for 'The Times', Atherton cited the recent "antics" at the Asia Cup where the Indian team refused to shake hands with Pakistani players and the Asian Cricket Council's Pakistani head Mohsin Naqvi walked away with the winner's trophy after the Indians refused to accept it from him.

"India and Pakistan have played each other in the group stage of every ICC event since 2013, which includes three 50-over World Cups, five T20 World Cups and three Champions Trophy," Atherton said.

"That is regardless of whether the initial stage has been a single round robin - part of the motivation for which is the inevitability of an India versus Pakistan fixture - or multi-group, when the draws have been neatly arranged to ensure the fixture goes ahead," he added.

The tensions between the two countries are at an all-time high after the Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 Indians were gunned down by Pakistan-backed terrorists leading to military action by India in May.

"Despite its scarcity (maybe, in part, because of its scarcity) it is a fixture that carries huge economic clout, one of the main reasons why the broadcast rights for ICC tournaments are worth so much -- roughly USD 3 billion for the most recent rights cycle 2023-27," Atherton wrote in The Times, London.

"Due to the relative decline in the value of bilateral matches, ICC events have grown in frequency and importance, and so the India and Pakistan fixture is crucial to the balance sheets of those who would not otherwise have any skin in the game," he said.

Atherton said time is now right to end the "tacitly supported arrangement" of ensuring that the two arch-foes clash at least once in ICC events. At the recent Asia Cup, the draw and schedule was such that the two sides faced each other every Sunday of the three-week tournament.

"If cricket was once the vehicle for diplomacy, it is now, clearly, a proxy for broader tensions and for propaganda. There is little justification, in any case, for a serious sport to arrange tournament fixtures to suit its economic needs and now that the rivalry is being exploited in other ways, there is even less justification for it.

"For the next broadcast rights cycle, the fixture draw before ICC events should be transparent and if the two teams do not meet every time, so be it," Atherton said.

India and Pakistan do not engage bilaterally since the 2008 Mumbai terror attack. The Indian government, days before Asia Cup, came out with a policy to place a blanket ban on bilateral sports between the two countries even at neutral venues but exempted multi-lateral events to ensure that the country adheres to the Olympic Charter.

Atherton said the two countries are being deliberately drawn with each other to cash in on the tension that pulls in the crowd and viewership numbers crucial for good advertising revenue.

"This 'arrangement' has been tacitly supported within the game for a number of reasons. The most obvious is the inability of both teams, because of political tensions, to meet outside ICC events.

"Cricket on each other's territory was once the avenue through which both countries might talk, but gradually silence has descended.

"ICC events are the only occasions, at present, when the fixture can go ahead and now this must be on neutral territory too — the cause of much debate in the most recent Champions Trophy, when India parked themselves in Dubai for an entire tournament nominally hosted by Pakistan," he pointed out.

Click here to read article