Indian Cricket Board (ICB) Vice-President, Rajeev Shukla says the board agrees with the governing International Cricket Council’s (ICC) statement on sportsmanship, after Pakistan’s withdrawal from the Twenty20 World Cup match, against India.
Cricket fans in Pakistan’s major cities on Monday (February 2) largely endorsed the federal government’s contentious decision to boycott the team’s upcoming T20 World Cup match against arch-rival India, framing it as a necessary response to political tensions and perceived… pic.twitter.com/TIFCLpUhm3
— SABC News (@SABCNews) February 2, 2026
The Pakistan government said on Sunday that Pakistan will boycott the February 15 match in Colombo, while approving the team’s participation in the global showpiece.
Pakistan, who are scheduled to play all their matches in Sri Lanka, would forfeit two points if they boycotted the India match. There was no clarity on what would happen should the neighbours meet in a knockout game.
The boycott deals a severe blow to the ICC tournament, for which an India-Pakistan match is the biggest draw, and deepens the crisis in bilateral cricket suspended due to fraught political relations.
Pakistan’s participation in the rest of the tournament, set to begin on February 7, remains subject to the government’s approval.
