After the revelation of the Asia Cup 2025 schedule, a new wave of controversy has broken out in India. Some Indian media and former cricketers are getting more and more upset about the planned match versus Pakistan.
Reports say that India, as the tournament’s official host, can’t back out of the Asia Cup or refuse to play Pakistan.
At a recent meeting of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) in Dhaka, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) apparently granted the go-ahead to go ahead with the plan, which means that a boycott is no longer an option.
According to reports that cite sources, the BCCI’s official consent means that withdrawal from either the tournament or the high-profile match against Pakistan is no longer an option.
“The BCCI can’t back out of the tournament or the match now. After the ACC meeting, everyone agreed on the decision. Nothing can be changed at this point because India is the host country. There was a discussion at the official level, and the decision was made based on it. BCCI sources said on Sunday that the game would go on as planned.
People in charge of the Indian board said that there were official conversations inside the board and that all choices were made after those talks.
The BCCI has not said anything about a boycott, either at or after the meeting, or since the official schedule was made public.
But things became worse after the timetable was made public.
The Indian media aggressively lambasted their own cricket board and government, and there were calls to boycott the Pakistan match. This was similar to what happened during the World Champions League.
Several former Indian cricketers have also publicly said they don’t want to play against Pakistan right now because of the political situation.
The tournament will begin on September 9 with a match between Afghanistan and Hong Kong to kick things off.
Pakistan, on the other hand, will start their campaign against Oman on September 12 and then play their biggest rival, India, on September 14. The Green Shirts will play their last group-stage game on September 17 against the UAE, who are hosting the tournament.
If the results are right, the two teams might meet again in the Super Four stage and maybe even in the final. This would imply that supporters could see their two biggest rivals play each other up to three times during the tournament.
