Former England cricketer Michael Atherton believes that ICC shouldn't arrange matches between India and Pakistan in major tournaments as they help in fueling border tensions between the two nations. This comes after the two teams met a total of three times in Asia Cup 2025 and all of their matches involved multiple controversial moments.
From the Indian team refusing to shake hands with Pakistan players in all the three matches to Haris Rauf and Sahibzada Farhan doing provocative gestures on the field, the games certainly were packed with drama. The controversy continued even after the conclusion of the final as Suryakumar Yadav & Co. refused to take the trophy from Mohsin Naqvi, who is the chairman of both the Asian Cricket Council and Pakistan Cricket Board. This led to them not being handed the trophy in the post-match ceremony and they are yet to receive it.
Why are India-Pakistan matches constantly held in tournaments?
Atherton feels that the India-Pakistan matches are arranged in almost every major tournament due to economic reasons. He cited the two teams not playing bilateral series against each other as another reason why matches are constantly held between them in tournaments.
“Despite its scarcity (maybe, in part, because of its scarcity), it is a fixture that carries huge economic clout, one of the main reasons why the broadcast rights for ICC tournaments are worth so much — roughly $3 billion for the most recent rights cycle in 2023-27,” Atherton wrote in his column for The Times.
“Due to the relative decline in the value of bilateral matches, ICC events have grown in frequency and importance, and so the India and Pakistan fixture is crucial to the balance sheets of those who would not otherwise have any skin in the game," he added.
Atherton also criticised the ICC for arranging matches between the two teams for economic benefit and added that they shouldn't arrange more India-Pakistan matches in the coming tournaments.
“If cricket was once the vehicle for diplomacy, it is now, clearly, a proxy for broader tensions and for propaganda. There is little justification, in any case, for a serious sport to arrange tournament fixtures to suit its economic need,s and now that the rivalry is being exploited in other ways, there is even less justification for it,” Atherton wrote.
“For the next broadcast rights cycle, the fixture draw before ICC events should be transparen,t and if the two teams do not meet every time, so be it,” he further added.