Pakistan minister Fawad Hussain blames India after 10 Sri Lankan players refused to play in Pakistan

While Pakistan Cricket Board is trying its best to resurrect cricket back in its home nation, security concerns continue to haunt them. 10 Sri Lankan players have backed out of a proposed tour, many of whom were a part of the team when terrorists attacked the team bus outside the Gaddafi Stadium in 2009.

The Pakistani authorities are doing their best to convince players that they will be given President-level security, but not all of them are to accept the proposal. After this news was confirmed in the last 24 hours, Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Science and Technology CH Fawad Hussain blamed Indian Sports Authorities for blackmailing players to back out of the tour.

He quoted information he received from some sports commentators that Indian authorities have blackmailed certain players to back out or else it would cost them an IPL contract. He also termed this act as “Cheap Jingoism”. Interestingly, he was also in the news a couple of days ago when he called ISRO’s Chandrayaan 2 a waste of money.

“Informed sports commentators told me that India threatened SL players that they’ll be ousted from IPL if they don’t refuse Pak visit, this is a really cheap tactic, jingoism from sports to space is something we must condemn, really cheap on the part of Indian sports authorities,” He wrote on his official Twitter handle.

Fragile relations between the nations

Ever since the Pulwama attacks took place on the Indo-Pak border in Kashmir, the relationship between the two countries has been pretty frantic and fragile. It nearly played a huge role in sabotaging India from playing Pakistan in the 2019 ICC World Cup as well, which could’ve cost two precious points for the side. India went on to win the match and also topped the table at the end of the group stages.

Since then, the blame game has been continuing between nations. It comes as no surprise that someone at the helm of their government has pointed their fingers towards the Indian authorities after the Lankan players backed. The Islanders are scheduled to play 3 ODIs and 3 T20Is in Karachi and Lahore spanning from 27th September to 9th October.