Inability To Play India In Bilateral Events Has Cost Pakistan Millions of Dollars: Michael Atherton

Former England cricketer Michael Atherton feels that Pakistan’s inability to play a bilateral series against India is the major reason behind the financial losses faced by PCB over the past decade.

Here it is worth mentioning that India and Pakistan have not played bilateral cricket since January 2013 when Pakistan visited India, where both teams played 2 T20Is and 3 ODIs. Talking about the longest format of the game, the neighbours have not met in a bilateral Test series since the 2007-08 season.

Team India and Pakistan only face each other in the ICC events. The last time they played against each other was during the 2019 World Cup in England.

“Pakistan’s inability to play India in bilateral events has cost them hundreds of millions of dollars in the past decade, or how being in exile in the UAE for nearly a decade cost significant amounts of financial and psychological capital,” Atherton wrote in his column for The Times.

The cricketer-turned-commentator further highlighted that Pakistan visited many countries since the inception of the pandemic, but, in return, they didn’t get enough support from those countries.

“When England have pulled out of tours to South Africa, Bangladesh and Pakistan, and when Australia have played no Test matches away from home since the pandemic began, Pakistan has travelled all over the world (and, remember, there are no touring fees paid to the visitors these days). Pakistan has played the most number of matches away from home since Covid struck, by some distance,” Atherton further wrote.

Recently, New Zealand and England called off their tour to Pakistan citing security as the main reason behind pulling out. New Zealand, in fact abandoned their limited-overs tour just few minutes before the first ODI in Rawalpindi, citing security threats.