A very thin line divides honour and dishonour

Mr. Prime Minister of Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

Sir,

There is not an iota of a doubt that New Zealand’s Cricket Board cancelled its Pakistani tour on a fake email originally generated from Mumbai by the Indian agencies to sabotage the flourishing cricket in Pakistan. Here, the meanness of the New Zealanders can be gauged from the fact that the so called threat communication was not shared with the Pakistani authorities, which is a fit case for legal action by the PCB to claim the damages suffered by the PCB on account of finances and reputation.

In this regard, PCB should also announce a boycott of all cricket matches against the NZ’s team starting from the match scheduled against them in the ICC T20I World Cup21, to be played in the UAE, till such time full losses of the PCB are paid and the NZ team visits again to Pakistan for the same duration compensatory tour.

Regarding the cancellation of England’s men and women cricket teams visit to Pakistan on even more flimsy and baseless grounds, the matter is much more serious, considering that the two reasons (security threat and players welfare) given by the Chairman ECB Mr. Ian Whatmore for cancellation of the tour.

In this connection, the British High Commissioner to Pakistan is on record having firmly said that no new Advisory about any change in the security status of Pakistan was issued.

Later on, media also reported that British PM Boris Johnson was angry over the ECB’s cancellation of Pakistani tour, without any reason.

Now, when the excuse of security threat was demolished by the British government, the players welfare excuse also automatically disappears, particularly when the players were not specifically touring Pakistan, but they were transiting to Pakistan before the World Cup for two virtually practice matches, before the start of the World Cup, for which they were coming to the region.

However, the story doesn’t end here. as the chairman ECB himself admitted about the wider damages to Pakistan‘s cricket, due to the England team’s cancellation of the shortest possible tour of just two T20 matches quoted as below.

Quote.
“ The repercussions of that decision are still playing out for Pakistan. There is concern within the PCB that England’s withdrawal would lead to Australia also not touring, as they are due to, early next year. That would leave what was supposed to be one of Pakistan’s biggest home seasons in recent years in tatters.”
Unquote.

In order to control any extremely serious and irreparable future damages to Pakistan’s cricket such as cancellation of the Australian team’s tour early next year, it is requested that PCB must call an emergency ICC meeting to clearly inform that since England’s en route tour of just two matches was erroneously and in a haste cancelled on totally false premise by the ECB, they must review it’s decision and visit Pakistan as scheduled earlier, otherwise, Pakistan has full right to decide not playing the T20I World Cup matches against the teams of England, New Zealand and India.

It is absolutely confirmed that the ICC and the Indian media companies having rights of broadcast and telecast can not afford such a huge loss of revenues, in case Pakistan boycotts three important matches, including the most revenue generating match against India.

The gist of the above suggestion is that respect is always earned and rights are snatched by the honourable nations; as such, since the PCB also has the trump card (option of boycotting three World Cup matches) we must show our firm resolve and resolutely stand for our rights and honour in the world arena of cricket at the ICC.

Kind Regards,

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad
Lahore.

30 September 2021