Before the T20 World Cup 2026, the controversy related to India, Pakistan and Bangladesh is no longer limited to Asia only. Two former England captains, Nasir Hussain and Michael Atherton, have openly expressed their views on this entire matter and have supported the stand of Pakistan and Bangladesh. Both the greats have raised questions on the International Cricket Council (ICC) and said that it is not treating all the countries equally and more concessions are being given to India and BCCI.

Where did the controversy start?

The root of this entire controversy is believed to be the decision related to Bangladesh fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman. Recently BCCI had released Mustafizur from the IPL team. After this, Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) refused to play the match of T20 World Cup 2026 to be held in India citing security reasons. Bangladesh refused to back down on its decision, due to which the ICC expelled them from the tournament and replaced them with Scotland.

After this, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) came out in support of Bangladesh and announced to boycott the India-Pakistan match to be held on 15 February. This decision has raised questions on both the credibility and future of the tournament.

Nasir Hussain’s big statement

While talking to Michael Atherton in Sky Cricket Podcast, Nasir Hussain said that he liked the stand of Bangladesh and Pakistan. According to Hussain, it was necessary for someone to tell BCCI and ICC that sports and politics should be kept separate.

Hussain said that Bangladesh raised its voice strongly for its player and Pakistan supported it, which according to him is not wrong. He also said that the money and earnings related to India-Pakistan match is the only weapon with which pressure can be put on ICC or India.

‘Cricket is breaking rather than uniting’

Giving the example of Asia Cup, Nasir Hussain said that earlier cricket used to unite countries, but now it is separating them. He mentioned the incident when Indian players refused to shake hands with Pakistani players and the latter did not even accept the Asia Cup trophy. Hussain called it very disappointing. He said that the current controversy had started when Mustafizur was suddenly removed from the IPL squad. After this the situation continued to deteriorate.

What if India existed?

Nasir Hussain also asked an important question to ICC. He said that if India had said just before any tournament that its government was not giving permission to play in any country, would ICC have taken such a strict stand? According to Hussain, ICC should treat all member countries equally, be it India, Pakistan or Bangladesh.

He also added that India certainly has money and power, but with power comes responsibility. If small countries are repeatedly suppressed, their cricket will become weak and the matches will become one-sided.

Michael Atherton also raised questions

Michael Atherton also raised questions on the role of ICC in the same podcast. He reminded that India had refused to go to Pakistan in the Champions Trophy 2025 and had got permission to play all its matches in Dubai. According to Atherton, Bangladesh is now demanding the same concession.

Atherton said that the decisions of Bangladesh and Pakistan have not come suddenly, but there is a whole sequence of events behind it. ICC should show impartiality and apply the same rules for every country.

Difficult times for ICC

It is clear from the statements of Nasir Hussain and Michael Atherton that this matter is no longer limited to Asian politics only. Big names of international cricket are also raising questions on the policies of ICC. In the coming days, it will be interesting to see how ICC resolves this dispute.

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.

Wi vs eng test match canceled at day 1: A Test match was played between England and West Indies in 1998, which was canceled on the first day. The biggest reason for the cancellation of this match was the pitch, on which this Test match was being played between the two teams. The pitch of this ground was so bad that it became very difficult for any batsman to bat on it.

Dangerous pitch of Sabina Park

The first incident in cricket history when the England team went on a tour of West Indies. Test matches were to be played between these two teams at the Sabina Park Cricket Stadium in Jamaica. In the first match of this series, England captain Michael Atherton won the toss and decided to bat first and asked the West Indies captained by Brine Lara to bowl.

England won the toss expensive

England won the toss and made the decision thoughtfully, but batting first became very expensive to the players of this team. The pitch report of this ground of Sabina Park was saying that this pitch could be quite dangerous during the last innings, due to which England thought more right to bat in the first and third innings. But this match went on in such a way that even England’s first innings could not end.

The result came out without playing the match

When the England team came out to bat, it was impossible for the English players to withstand the balls of West Indies bowler Katli Ambros and Katni Walsh. In the game of some time of this match, England players suffered many injuries. After this, when England scored 3 wickets for 17 runs, the match was stopped and the result was removed that the match could not be played on this dangerous pitch, so that the first Test match of this series was drawn without playing without full.

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