Indian women's team set to play Pakistan in Asia Cup: Reports

As per the recent reports in a post in TOI, India and Pakistan are set to play each other in the Asia Cup. The Indian women’s team will lock horns with arch-rivals Pakistan women’s team in the coveted event. The tournament kicks off on November 25 with Thailand being the hosts for the mutli-team tournament. Sources in the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) have revealed that India have agreed to play Pakistan in the tournament.

The troubled waters had surfaced when BCCI President Anurag Thakur had requested the ICC not to include India and Pakistan in same groups for ICC events. The plea was made following the political tensions between the two countries. However, the Pakistan counterpart are keen on keeping politics and sports apart. Recently, rumours had surfaced that India might not play Pakistan in the Champions Trophy next year.

The news had created a huge uproar among the PCB. The officials had subsequently warned the BCCI to either play Pakistan or compensate for the losses incurred due to backing out. “We took this up very strongly at the last ICC meeting in Capetown and India said it had reservations over playing with us in bilateral series but would play in ICC events,” the source said.

It was PCB’s delegation head who had disclosed this news in the public recently. The official source also mentioned that Sethi was clear in putting forth his point at the ICC meet in Cape Town recently. “Sethi made the point passionately at the ICC meeting that while Pakistan had always advocated keeping politics and sports apart, the BCCI President’s media statements were political,” the source said.

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“Sethi clearly asked Thakur at the meeting whether or not his statements were not political ones on Indo-Pak relations and he should be very clear on whether India wanted to play with Pakistan in the group or knockout stages of ICC events in future,” the source remarked further.

Now the source has indicated that India will play Pakistan in the Asia Cup commencing later this month. “As a result it is clear that India will play us in the women’s Asia T20 Cup and Champions Trophy. Sethi later also had an informal discussion with Thakur on the sidelines of the meeting,” he said.

The tournament will feature Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Thailand as the participating teams.