Pakistan's decision not to travel to India is not the first in ICC events.
Credit: PTI File Photo
Pakistan have decided boycott of its high-profile International Cricket Council (ICC) T20 World Cup group league match against India, a move that is likely to have serious repercussions even as the government cleared the national team's participation in the rest of the global event starting on February 7.
The ICC, on its part questioned the Pakistan government's decision and also issued a warning that this boycott could lead to punitive sanctions.
Though cricket is dubbed the 'Gentleman's Game', there have been any untoward incidents and Pakistan's threat to forfeiture the match against India is not the first case. Here we look at four previous instances where teams have forfeited matches in ICC events.
1996 World Cup: Australia (vs Sri Lanka)
The tournament co-hosted by India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka was mired in controversies right from the beginning. Sri Lanka was in a state of civil unrest and there was a bomb explosion just weeks prior to the start of the tournament. Citing these concerns, Australia refused to travel to Colombo for their group, with the Kangaroos losing the points for forfeiture. Ironically the two teams ended up playing the final in Lahore and Sri Lanka went on to win the tournament.
1996 World Cup: West Indies (vs Sri Lanka)
Following Australia's footsteps, the West Indies also decided not to travel to Sri Lanka and forfeited the match incurring loss of points. The Caribbean's reached the semifinals where they lost to Australia from a winning position. With both Australia and West Indies deciding to boycott their group matches in Sri Lanka, a game of South Asian solidarity was held before the tournament began, in which India and Pakistan fielded a joint team against Sri Lanka.
2003 World Cup: England (vs Zimbabwe)
The 2003 edition was jointly hosted by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya. Due to the diplomatic stand off between Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe administration and UK government headed by Tony Blair, England refused to travel to Harare for their group tie. During Zimbabwe's opening game of the World Cup against Namibia, Andy Flower and Henry Olonga famously wore black armbands to "mourn the death of democracy" in their country.
2003 World Cup: New Zealand (vs Kenya)
In the same tournament, New Zealand refused to travel to Kenya citing security reasons. There had been a bomb blast in Mombasa city a few months earlier. The Kiwis requested ICC to shift their match out of Nairobi, but the game's global governing body did not agree to it.