By Admin 
Former England captain Michael Atherton has demanded to completely close the cricket match between India and Pakistan. He says that there should not be a match between India and Pakistan in the ICC tournament. He also cited the 2025 Asia Cup for this, in which there was a lot of controversy in the cricket match between the two countries.
In the column written for ‘The Times’, Atherton cited the recently ‘uproar’ in the Asia Cup, where the Indian team refused to join hands with the Pakistani players and took away the Pakistani head of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Mohsin Naqvi winning trophy, as Indians refused to take the trophy.
Atherton said, “India and Pakistan have been clashed with each other in the group phase of every ICC tournament since 2013, including three 50-over World Cup, Five T20 World Cup and three Champions Trophy. It does not matter whether the early phase has been single round robin- which is a reason for India vs. Pakistan. Went.”
Atherton wrote in London’s ‘The Times’, this is a match between the two countries due to low matches (perhaps partially its deficiency), which has a lot of economic influence. This is one of the main reasons that the broadcast rights of ICC tournaments are so precious. The most recent rights for about three billion dollars for the 2023–27 cycle. The frequency and importance of ICC competitions has increased due to the relatively decline in the importance of bilateral bilateral matches and hence the match between India and Pakistan is also important for countries which have no importance in sports otherwise.
Atherton said that the time has now come to abolish the ‘strategically supported system’ to ensure at least once in ICC competitions between the two rivals. The draw and program in the recent Asia Cup was such that in this three-week tournament, both teams will be face to face every Sunday.
He said, “If cricket was once a source of diplomacy, then it has now become a medium of widespread stress and propaganda. It is not appropriate to organize a tournament match according to your economic needs for any serious game and now that this rivalry is being benefited in other ways, its justification is even less.