In a recent interview, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ramiz Raja spoke about having a bilateral series between India and Pakistan, keeping aside the political tension between the two teams. However, there was a time when both countries could not even think about hosting the other without the emergence of violent elements.
Before Pakistan beat India in the 2021 T20 World Cup for the first time at a limited-overs World Cup, they suffered a massive 89-run loss against India. This was seen as redemption not only for cricket fans but for the country as a whole, because of the Pulwama attacks that had taken place on February 14.
Following the attack, the BCCI had sent a letter to the ICC requesting them to isolate Pakistan and prevent their participation in the 2019 ICC Men's Cricket World Cup held in England. Speaking to Sports Tak in an exclusive interview, India's former Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai explained the decision to request the entire cricketing community to boycott Pakistan.
“The thought process was that if any country is responsible for insurgency or terrorism, then it would be better if the world could isolate that nation rather than a single country. So we said that no countries were willing to travel to Pakistan to play. So the time had come to isolate Pakistan and that would be better. Because terrorism is spreading across the world from Pakistan. This was the mindset behind that letter,” Rai said.
While discussing India's strained relationship with our neighbouring country, Rai also revealed that the two countries' cricket boards were planning a bilateral series back in 2014, but the idea was shot down by the Indian government, "Before us, there was a memorandum of understanding between the BCCI and the PCB, that we will play a bilateral series. This was in 2014. But we did not get permission from the government and we could not play. Because of this, the PCB suffered financial loss after which they lodged a complaint against us in the Court of Arbitration. But when the complaint was made, we defended India, and then we won."
Rai was appointed to the BCCI as part of a four-member panel called the Chief of Administrators by the Supreme Court. He continued in this capacity for another two years, before Sourav Ganguly was appointed as the president of the BCCI.
