Legendary Pakistan batter Javed Miandad has lashed out at India amid the Asia Cup 2023 controversy.
It must be noted that, in October last year Pakistani cricket authorities hinted they may pull out of next year's World Cup in India, a day after officials there said they would not send a team to the 2023 Asia Cup in Pakistan.
Jay Shah, who is BCCI secretary and also the president of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC), had said that India "can't" send a team to Pakistan, adding the tournament would be moved to a neutral venue.
His announcement caught Pakistan by surprise, with officials warning it could "split" the international cricket community.
The PCB said Shah's comments "can impact Pakistan's visit to India for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 and future ICC Events in India in the 2024-2031 cycle".
Reacting to the controversy, Miandad said that India can go to hell if they don’t want to tour Pakistan for the Asia Cup.
“I have always been saying, if India doesn't want to come, we don't care. They can go to hell. We are getting our cricket. It's ICC's job to control such things, else there's no point of having a governing body,” Miandad said while speaking to media.
"ICC should have one rule for every country. If such teams don't come, no matter how strong they are, you should remove them.
“They should play, why aren't they playing? They are afraid of consequences.
“Even in our times, they would not play because they were afraid of consequences. India's crowd is 'nasty'. Whenever India would lose, no matter against whom, they would burn houses. That's what they are afraid of.”
Despite being considered one of sport's greatest rivalries, India and Pakistan have not met on home soil in any version of the game since 2012, and only play each other in multinational tournaments on neutral grounds.
The ACC will make a final decision on venue of Asia Cup 2023 in its Executive Board's meeting next month.
An emergency meeting of ACC was held in Bahrain on Saturday which was also attended by PCB Management Committee Chairman Najam Sethi. Among other issues, fate of Asia Cup was also discussed but no decision was made.