If Pakistan-India really had no revenue value, they could have simply excluded it from the Champions Trophy and brought Sri Lanka in. Or they could have simply put Pakistan and India in different groups and had no match. The broadcasters, including your beloved Star Sports, warned ICC that their rights deal would not stand without that match. Instead, here are the FACTS:
1. Pakistan will not be visiting India for tournaments until after 2027.
2. Not only this, but Pakistan will not be visiting India for the 2026 T20 World Cup. India will be forced to come play them in Sri Lanka instead of hosting the game in India (Indian source here:
https://www.indiatoday.in/sports/cr...cc-approves-pakistan-dubai-2649526-2024-12-13)
3. A second tournament (admittedly a smaller one) was award to Pakistan.
As far as the rest...shameful statements. Emirates? A tiny country with no real population? The Emiratis are only good at hosting sports. They are not the ones to bring new revenue into the game. Sure they're sitting on billions and billions of oil money but not even the Sheikhs invested-the Emirati Cricket board had to invite Indians and one American who already owns an NFl team and Manchester United to buy their franchise teams.
Do you know who owns Chinese sports teams? The answer is pretty simple-Chinese people. It doesn't happen overnight. It's a long-term investment. Much like what was done with the US teams and Afghanistan, it's a ten year building process where Pakistani cricket leadership steadily works with the Chinese cricket leadership to spread the game, host more matches and eventually boosts their performance to the point where the Chinese cricket teams are competing with top level associates like Namibia, Scotland, USA, and similar and able to surprise a lower level team like USA did to Bangladesh and Pakistan last summer and host a seasonal franchise league. I guarantee Indians won't be able to invest-China won't let them.
As far as the T20 World Cup last year, you are utterly missing the point. It's becoming apparent to me that the only words you understand are "BCCI revenue" as if that's all that matters. Again, strategic thinking. Not one person sat down for a minute to think "OK, we're hosting this tournament in the USA. How do we get backing from businesses operating in the richest market on the planet so we can maximize our exposure?". The ICC has only ever thought about gate revenue.Pro sports teams don't make their primary income from gate revenue here. They make it from TV rights, merchandising, corporate sponsorships, and pro sports revenue. This could have been done much better and ensured a huge profit in the T20 world cup simply from smarter thinking...and thinking beyond gate revenue.
Finally, regarding Afghanistan, don't nonsense this. Afghans learned the game in Pakistan in the 80s and 90s. The ACB was founded with assistance by the PCB. The Afghan cricket team regularly played first class cricket in Pakistan in the 2000s, saw Kabir Khan and Rashid Latif coach the team, saw Afghan crickets play as visitors in Pakistan, and even played a three match LOI series vs. Pakistan A in 2011 and in the National T20 cup the same year, and finally, played their first ODI against guess who? Pakistan in 2012. Furthermore, the PCB provided further development support from 2013 to 2015 to help further develop Afghan cricket under an official MOU. All this work was done in the middle of a war that badly affected Pakistan and had cross-border terror come from Afghanistan to Pakistan.
India did nothing until Afghanistan was already a strong side deserving of Test status on its own merits. Don't try to BS me with your historical revisionism and Indian propaganda. I predicted the result of what would happen to the Champions trophy long before India opened its nakhray late last year. I told all here that the end result would be Pakistan no longer touring India. I told all here ECB would back Pakistan. You should be glad- the vile, evil Pakistan team will no longer grace Indian soil.
I'm done talking with you.
