Pakistan will travel India for World Cup 2023 only on government's approval: PCB chief Najam Sethi

Pakistan will host the Asia Cup 2023 on hybrid model with 4 matches in their backyard and 9 in Sri Lanka.

India and Pakistan don't play any bilateral series against each other. These two teams only play in multinational tournaments like the World Cup and the Asia Cup. That's what makes a game between these two teams more exciting. With the Asia Cup and the 2023 ODI World Cup coming up this year, we will see these two teams lock horns on 3–4 occasions. A couple of days ago, the Asian Cricket Council revealed the schedule of the upcoming Asia Cup.

It saw the official hosts, Pakistan will host four games in their country, while the remaining nine games will be hosted by Sri Lanka. This came only after a lot of hard work from the Pakistan Cricket Board to make all the stakeholders agree to their hybrid model. Pakistan are the official hosts of the Asia Cup, but India refused to travel Pakistan for the tournament.

"Pakistan will travel to India for ODI World Cup, only if Government allows"- PCB Chief Najam Sethi

Notably, India will play all of their Asia Cup matches in Sri Lanka. However, just two days after the schedule was announced, the PCB chief said that Pakistan will also seek the permission of the government to travel to India for the 2023 ODI World Cup. In a press conference on Friday, Sethi said that none of the boards (BCCI and PCB) can take decisions; it is the respective governments who will take the final call.

When asked about Pakistan's plans to travel India for ODI World Cup, Sethi said, "We have written to the ICC that we cannot give the approval or disapproval on travelling to India. This decision is made by our government, just like it is for India. Whether we will play in Ahmedabad or not is for later. And then the government will tell us where we can play and where we cannot. We told them (ICC) that subject to these conditions, we can tell you at any stage that we will play or not, or where we can play."

He also highlighted when in 2016 India refused to travel Pakistan but Pakistan went to India for the T20 World Cup. Sethi said that we took the approval from then PM Nawaz Sharif and the government and they only allowed us after investing and checking all the security protocols. However, he also said that it is early to speak something about Pakistan going India or not, but when everything will be stable politically in the country we can ask for approval from them.