IPL not shown in Pakistan a loss to Indian cricket: Pakistan Minister Fawad Ahmed Chaudhry

It’s time for tit for tat. In retaliation to IMG Reliance’s pulling out of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) last month as a mark of protest to deadly attacks on CRPF personnel in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama, the Pakistani authorities have decided to ban telecast of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in their own country. The tournament is scheduled to kick off on March 23 when defending champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) will take on Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in Chennai.

Pakistan’s Minister of Information and Broadcasting Fawad Ahmed Chaudhry has even claimed that the ban on the telecast of the IPL will lead to a big loss for Indian cricket. He said Pakistan couldn’t help but act that way after the way the Indian government and companies treated Pakistan cricket in the recent past.

‘Can’t help after the way Indian govt, companies treated Pak cricket’

“During the PSL, the way the Indian companies and the government treated Pakistan cricket… after that, we can’t tolerate that IPL is shown in Pakistan. We tried to keep politics and cricket apart but then the Indian cricket team played matches wearing army caps against Australia. There was no action taken against that. I feel if IPL is not shown in Pakistan it will be a loss for IPL and Indian cricket. We are a cricketing superpower in international cricket,” Chaudhry, a leader of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf party, was quoted as saying to a Pakistan news channel.

IPL 2019 will played between March 23 and May 5 while the final will be played on May 19 at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai. The tournament this year will take place parallelly to the general elections. The BCCI revealed the tournament’s fixture in phases as it was waiting for the election schedule to be released.

Players from Pakistan used to take part in the IPL in the initial years but deteriorating relations between the two neighbours saw that stopping later. Pakistan have been organising their own T20 tournament – PSL – since 2016 and the latest edition concluded recently with Quetta Gladiators winning their first title in the third attempt.

Here is CSK’s squad for IPL 2019

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