IPL franchises failed to bid for Pakistani players in the third edition of the competition.
This has caused outrage, understandably, from Pakistan.
From the Indian side, everyone seems quick to deny a conspiracy.
The problem is that it is quite likely that this was purely an rational economic decision rather than a political one. It is less likely that the Indian government or the BCCI told the franchises not to bid for these players than that the franchises feared that the political relationship between the India and Pakistan was so unstable that they couldn’t risk shelling out cash for players that may not, in the end, be able to play. So for the franchises it was an economic decision but one influenced by political realities.
Its a tragedy that cricket is being held at ransom by politics yet again and that followers of the IPL won’t be able to see members of the national team that won the T20 world cup in action. It surely isn’t that surprising though.
This uncertainty of visas and availability is yet another reason why the rumoured move of the ICC to Mumbai is such a bad idea.
It has been mooted that the ICC could move either back to London or cricket’s powerhouse – India. Whilst one of the negatives about London is the possibility that Zimbabwean’s cricket administrators might not be able to get visas, no one seems to have mentioned that if the ICC moves to India, PCB administrators might find a similar uncertainty around getting visas to that which the Pakistani cricketers have recently experienced. This would be far more devastating to world cricket than the loss of the Zimbabweans. One to ponder on…..
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