“We have decided to participate in the Asia Cup because it is a multinational competition.” BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia told. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary, Devajit Saikia clearify why India has no choice but to play Pakistan in the ongoing Asia Cup 2025.
Saikia said to media, “We have decided to participate in the Asia Cup because it is a multinational competition. It is just like an Olympic, any FIFA tournament, AFC tournament, or International Athletics Tournament.”
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Saikia was quoted as telling “So we cannot boycott the multinational tournament because if we boycott this tournament, that will bring a lot of negativity for all our future endeavours of hosting any multinational tournament in the country,”
“So therefore, as it is a multinational competition, we are participating because we do not have a direct call or direct decision whether to play or not to play,” Devajit Saikia told.
Devajit Saikia told making a unilateral decision is easy when it comes to bilateral cricket, but things become complicated when multilateral events are involved.
Saikia told media “Had it been a bilateral tournament, we could have always said that we would not play against any hostile country. And so far as Pakistan is concerned, we are not playing any bilateral tournament since 2012-13 onwards,”
Suggestion of boycotting India-Pakistan match
Saikia underlined that the BCCI couldn’t have take the risk of jeopardising the player’s careers, so the only option was to proceed with the match against Pakistan.
He further described the stance of BCCI, telling, “We have decided to take a call that Pakistan is not friendly with us and they are always acting against our country. Therefore, we decided not to play as BCCI against PCB.”
“But when it is an international tournament like last year’s T20 tournament in the West Indies and the USA, or any other tournament or maybe in February, also, there will be the ICC T20 World Cup or the present ICC tournament or the Champions Trophy, we are playing it because in those tournaments we do not have a direct call, we have to play,” he told.
“Otherwise, the whole tournament will get diluted,” Saikia added.
“And if we do that, then all other international associations will take action against the Indian sports Federation” the BCCI secretary told.
He went on to explain, “Suppose India is not participating in an AFC football tournament or a FIFA qualifying tournament or the Davis Cup, or the Thomas Cup, then in future, if we want to host a Commonwealth tournament in India or the Olympics in the 2030s, all these factors will take an adverse position for India to bid for those tournaments to be held in India.”
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Central govt’s guideline
Devajit Saikia told that considering all aspects, “the central government has laid down a guideline and a policy that, so far as bilateral tournament is concerned, India is not going to play against any hostile country, But so far as multinational, we will play.”
“So we follow that guideline of the central government, and we are following it because it is in the interest of the game, whether it is cricket, football, athletics, boxing, badminton and the players involved in those games. If it is cricket also , we have to do it because it is being permitted under the present central government policy,” Devajit Saikia added.
