Pakistan and India gamers stroll out earlier than the beginning of the match in Dubai Worldwide Cricket Stadium forward of begin of the match in Dubai Worldwide Stadium, United Arab Emirates on September 28, 2025.— Reuters
Former England captain Michael Atherton has accused the Worldwide Cricket Council (ICC) of deliberately scheduling matches to make sure that Pakistan and India frequently compete in opposition to one another in main tournaments.
Atherton’s remarks come within the wake of the strain and controversy that adopted final month’s Asia Cup, the place the 2 arch-rivals met thrice, together with within the last.
The occasion was marred by heated exchanges and unsportsmanlike gestures from either side, whereas India’s captain Suryakumar Yadav additionally refused to shake fingers along with his Pakistani counterpart, Salman Agha.
The animosity prolonged past the boys’s occasion, because the skippers of each ladies’s groups, Fatima Sana and Harmanpreet Kaur, additionally averted shaking fingers after their ODI Girls’s World Cup match in Colombo on Sunday.
Writing in his column for The Occasions (UK), Atherton acknowledged that the ICC’s resolution to schedule India-Pakistan fixtures in world tournaments has robust industrial and diplomatic motivations.
The 2 groups have confronted one another within the group stage of all 11 ICC occasions held since 2013.
“Despite its rarity — or perhaps because of it — the fixture carries huge economic clout,” Atherton wrote.
“It is one of the main reasons why ICC tournament broadcast rights are valued so highly, around $3 billion for the 2023–27 cycle,” he added.
He additional famous that with bilateral cricket shedding monetary worth, ICC occasions have grown in significance, making the India-Pakistan conflict an important issue for broadcasters and stakeholders.
Nevertheless, the previous England skipper argued that the match has now turn into a platform for political and emotional show fairly than sporting competitors.
“If cricket was once a vehicle for diplomacy, it has now clearly become a proxy for broader tensions and propaganda,” Atherton acknowledged.
“There is little justification for a serious sport to manipulate tournament fixtures purely for economic benefit. Given how the rivalry is being exploited, there is even less reason to continue this practice.”
The 57-year-old concluded by urging the ICC to make sure transparency in future event attracts.
“For the following broadcast rights cycle, the fixture draw needs to be clear — and if India and Pakistan don’t meet each time, so be it.”
