The choice was made following a gathering between PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi and PM Shehbaz Sharif
Pakistan and India are set to lock horns within the Asia Cup ultimate for the primary time within the event’s historical past. Photograph: AFP
Pakistan will take part within the ICC Males’s T20 World Cup 2026 however is not going to take the sector in its scheduled match towards India on February 15, the federal government mentioned on Sunday, confirming a politically delicate determination forward of the worldwide event.
In a publish on the federal government’s X account, it mentioned: “The Authorities of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan grants approval to the Pakistan Cricket Group to take part within the ICC World T20 2026, nevertheless, the Pakistan Cricket Group shall not take the sector within the match scheduled on fifteenth February 2026 towards India.”
The Authorities of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan grants approval to the Pakistan Cricket Group to take part within the ICC World T20 2026, nevertheless, the Pakistan Cricket Group shall not take the sector within the match scheduled on fifteenth February 2026 towards India.
— Authorities of Pakistan (@GovtofPakistan) February 1, 2026
The choice was taken following a gathering between Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Mohsin Naqvi and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, in keeping with the assertion.
The event comes amid a broader Bangladesh controversy, which has already solid a shadow over the event. Bangladesh have been faraway from the T20 World Cup 2026 and changed by Scotland within the event, a call that triggered criticism from a number of quarters, together with Pakistan, over what was described as inconsistent therapy by the Worldwide Cricket Council (ICC).
The Authorities of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan grants approval to the Pakistan Cricket Group to take part within the ICC World T20 2026, nevertheless, the Pakistan Cricket Group shall not take the sector within the match scheduled on fifteenth February 2026 towards India.
— Authorities of Pakistan (@GovtofPakistan) February 1, 2026
Bangladesh’s alternative — following disputes associated to internet hosting preparations, safety considerations and scheduling beneath the hybrid mannequin involving India and Sri Lanka — intensified debate over governance and equity in worldwide cricket, with Pakistan overtly expressing solidarity with Bangladesh earlier within the row.
The T20 World Cup 2026, scheduled to be co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka from February 7 to March 8, is now going through renewed uncertainty as political issues intersect with cricketing commitments. A Pakistan–India conflict is historically the event’s largest business draw, and Pakistan’s refusal may drive the ICC to revisit scheduling or points-allocation eventualities.
Pakistan’s T20 World Cup marketing campaign begins towards the Netherlands on February 7 in Colombo, adopted by matches towards the US on February 10 and Namibia on February 18.
Regardless of opting out of the India match, Pakistan’s participation in the remainder of the ICC Males’s T20 World Cup 2026 alerts a calibrated strategy fairly than a full boycott, following days of hypothesis linked to the Bangladesh concern and regional tensions.
The ICC has but to concern an official response on how Pakistan’s determination will influence the event construction, whereas cricket directors proceed to watch the fallout from each the Pakistan–India match refusal and the Bangladesh alternative controversy, which collectively have made the build-up to the World T20 unusually fraught.
India-Pakistan rivalry
Within the cricketing world, an India–Pakistan contest is essentially the most anticipated fixture at any ICC event, significantly because the suspension of bilateral excursions between the 2 cricket-mad neighbours.
Owing to strained relations, India haven’t toured Pakistan since 2008, and the rivals now face one another solely at multi-team occasions. Pakistan, nevertheless, visited India for the 50-overs World Cup final 12 months, the 2016 T20 World Cup, and a three-match ODI sequence in 2012.
Pakistan additionally hosted the Asia Cup in 2023, however eventual winners India performed all their matches in Sri Lanka beneath a hybrid mannequin.
Controversy erupted after India refused to journey to Pakistan for the ICC Champions Trophy, regardless of Pakistan having toured India for the ODI World Cup. India maintained that its authorities didn’t grant permission for the tour — a stance accepted by the ICC on the time, although an analogous justification was later rejected when put ahead by Bangladesh.
After weeks of deliberations, the Worldwide Cricket Council (ICC), the worldwide governing physique of the game, accredited the hybrid mannequin proposed by the Pakistan Cricket Board for the ICC Champions Trophy 2025, in addition to different ICC occasions scheduled between 2025 and 2027.
In a proper assertion, the ICC mentioned: “India and Pakistan matches hosted by both nation at ICC occasions throughout the 2024–2027 rights cycle can be performed at a impartial venue, the ICC Board confirmed.”
The ICC added that the hybrid association would apply to 2 main occasions subsequent 12 months — the boys’s Champions Trophy in Pakistan and the ladies’s ODI World Cup in India. It is going to even be in place for the boys’s T20 World Cup in 2026, co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka, and the ladies’s T20 World Cup in Pakistan in 2028.
Below this association, all of Pakistan’s matches have been shifted to Sri Lanka, as they have been to be performed at a impartial venue.
The problem appeared to have been resolved however resurfaced when India dropped Bangladesh’s pacer from the Indian Premier League amid rising tensions with Bangladesh, additional worsening the already strained relations between the 2 cricketing nations.
Bangladesh demanded that the ICC shift its matches to Sri Lanka, however the worldwide cricket physique refused to conform, forcing Bangladesh to withdraw from the World Cup, with Scotland added as a alternative.
The dispute, centred on internet hosting preparations, safety considerations and scheduling beneath the hybrid mannequin involving India and Sri Lanka, intensified debate over governance and equity in worldwide cricket. Pakistan overtly expressed solidarity with Bangladesh earlier throughout the row.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and the federal government held intensive deliberations over the choice to take part within the World Cup, together with the choice of an entire boycott in solidarity with Bangladesh and in protest towards what they described because the ICC’s unfair therapy. Nevertheless, it was finally determined that Pakistan would boycott solely the match towards their arch-rivals.
India and Sri Lanka are internet hosting the ICC Males’s T20 World Cup for the second time. Sri Lanka have been the hosts of the 2012 version whereas India hosted it in 2016, with West Indies successful each the editions.
India (2007 and 2024) and England (2010 and 2022) are the opposite groups to win the championship greater than as soon as whereas Pakistan (2009), Sri Lanka (2014) and Australia (2021) are the opposite previous winners.
