Pakistan gives a ridiculous reason to ban broadcast of IPL in the country

The political overtones in the Indo-Pak cricket relations have seen new developments with the Pakistani federal cabinet taking a decision to ban the broadcast of the IPL in the country. This was conveyed by Pakistan’s Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon. The Cabinet meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan, who is, of course, a former captain of the Pakistan national side.

Ever since the Pulwama terror attack in which over 40 CRPF jawans were killed, the ties between India and Pakistan have become strained. Naturally, this has also affected the cricketing ties between the nations over the last few months. While India wrote a letter to the ICC to sever ties with countries that harbor terrorism, Pakistan unsuccessfully appealed to the ICC against the Indian team wearing camouflage caps to honor the martyrs in an ODI against Australia. The feeling of animosity was also reflected in Indian companies’ treatment of broadcast of the PSL.

While DSport — the official broadcasters of the PSL in India — stopped the coverage of the tournament in protest of Pulwama, Indian company IMG Reliance also pulled out of producing the television coverage of the PSL worldwide forcing the Pakistani league to find a new production company midway into the tournament.  Now Pakistan has retaliated in kind, with the decision made by the cabinet to ban broadcast of the IPL in Pakistan.

India has harmed Cricket in Pakistan, alleges Pak Minister

Chaudhry stated that the move was being taken because India had left no opportunity to harm Pakistan’s cricket. “India made an organized effort to harm cricket in Pakistan and it doesn’t make sense for us to allow an Indian domestic tournament to be promoted here,” he said. He also claimed that IMG Reliance had pulled out solely “to harm the league and cricket” in Pakistan.

Chaudhry in his news conference said Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) would ensure that IPL matches would not be broadcast in Pakistan. However, he maintained that Pakistan has always refrained from mingling sports and politics. “We think that political differences should not interfere with sport and cultural activities. But we saw that limits were crossed when the Indian team played their match wearing army caps”, the minister said as quoted by Economic Times.

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