T20 World Cup 2026: Pakistan to boycott Feb 15 match against India, confirm tournament participation
The Pakistan government has cleared its national team to feature in the T20 World Cup 2026. However, the government has refused its team to play in the high-octane clash against India in Colombo.
The Pakistan government has cleared its national team to feature in the upcoming T20 World Cup 2026; however, it has denied the team permission to play the match against India on February 15 in Colombo.
This comes after a week-long uncertainty of Pakistan's participation in the tournament after the International Cricket Council had replaced Bangladesh with Scotland. Following ICC's decision to remove Bangladesh from the tournament, the PCB chairman, Mohsin Naqvi, had threatened a possible boycott of the World Cup. Naqvi had stated that the decision on Pakistan's participation would be taken after his meeting with the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif
Pakistan had set Monday as deadline for confirming participation
Meanwhile, the PCB chairman Naqvi had met Sharif and had deferred the decision for the participation in the tournament till Friday or Monday. "Had a productive meeting with the Prime Minister ... Shehbaz Sharif," Naqvi had tweeted after meeting his PM. "Briefed him on the ICC matter, and he directed that we resolve it while keeping all options on the table. It was agreed that the final decision [on participation] will be taken either on Friday or next Monday."
This came after the ICC removed Bangladesh from the tournament due to their unwillingness to travel to India for the tournament. During a meeting, the ICC board had voted with a big majority to remove Bangladesh and replace them with Scotland if they kept denying their travel to India for the tournament. The Pakistan Cricket Board was the only other board that supported Bangladesh in the meeting. The ICC had given Bangladesh a 24-hour time period to decide their travel to India, and they remained adamant on their stance of not touring India. Following this, ICC replaced Bangladesh with Scotland at the 11th hour.
Following this removal, Naqvi had accused ICC of 'double standards'. "I think Bangladesh has been hard done by," he said. "You can't have double standards. You can't say for one country [India] they can do whatever they want and for the others to have to do the complete opposite. That's why we've taken this stand, and made clear Bangladesh have had an injustice done to them. They should play in the World Cup, they are a major stakeholder in cricket," Naqvi had said.