Pakistan likely to travel to India for WT20 for the blind

Pakistan’s blind cricket team is likely to travel to India to compete at the 2nd T20 World Cup for the Blind, starting on January 28 next year. Mahantesh GK, the president of the Cricket Association for the Blind in India (CABI), confirmed that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had confirmed that their visually-impaired team would play in the tournament.

“We’re doing our bit. Hopefully, the governments of both countries give their ‘No Objection’ letters. Things should become better by then,” Mahantesh told reporters in Mumbai.

Relations between the two neighboring countries have deteriorated further after the Pathankot and Uri terror attacks. This led to heightened tensions and the aftermath of this act has been a full-blown diplomatic war between both the nation.

Recently, the Pakistani kabaddi team missing the 2016 Kabaddi World Cup held in Gujarat earlier this year. Interestingly, no Pakistan matches have been scheduled in Mumbai which has seen protests from regional political parties in the past to India having sporting ties with Pakistan.

Cricket has been majorly affected due to the sour relations between the neighbors. There has been protests and brouhaha whenever the Pakistan team is scheduled to play in the country. The most recent occasion was during the ICC World Twenty20 in earlier this year when the clash between the two high-profile sides was forced to be rescheduled and shifted to Kolkata from Dharamsala after Himachal Pradesh government failed to meet the required security norms.

“The schedule has been very well thought out. The Pakistan team will land in New Delhi and play all their matches there bar a few games in Bangalore,” Mahantesh added.

Apart from India and Pakistan, eight other teams — Australia, England, South Africa, West Indies, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal — will compete at the tournament.