Pakistan sponsors terror: Thakur.
As Indian and Pakistan continue a diplomatic war following the terrorist attack on a military base in Uri that killed 18 Indian soldiers, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Anurag Thakur dismissed any chance of playing cricket with Pakistan.
“There are no tests or bilateral matches scheduled for this year with Pakistan and the question of playing against Pakistan today does not arise,” Thakur, who is also a Lok Sabha MP said reporters on the sidelines of the BJP national executive going on in Kozhikode, Kerala.
“We have defeated Pakistan in three wars and all the world cup cricket matches. We can still maul Pakistan. But it is important to isolate it globally,” he added.
Thakur said the need of the hour is to expose Pakistan as a state sponsoring terrorism.
“Priority is to expose Pak as a country which sponsors terrorism. No question of playing cricket which such a nation,” Thakur said.
Indian has rolled out a series of measures to alienate Pakistan in front of international community and forums following the Uri attack that was perpetrated by terrorists based in Pakistan.
Known as arch rivals, Indian and Pakistan haven’t played a bilateral cricket series since 2006 though both the teams have encountered in ICC World Cup, and Asia Cup matches.
Though the Board of Control For Cricket In India (BCCI) had retracted from resuming any bilateral cricketing ties with Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) following a terrorist attack on Gurdaspur police station in Punjab in July last year, both the countries had planned to play a bilateral series in December 2015. But the governments couldn’t reach a conclusion.
Thakur had taken the same stance in 2015 when the question of playing with Pakistan was raised after Gurdaspur attack.
“Earlier also there was no such decision that the series will take place. Only the PCB has reached out to the BCCI. We were talking on those lines but when you see such attack on India time and again, the Jammu region, now Punjab, where Indians are losing their lives, as an Indian I don’t see a possibility to that,” Thakur had told in 2015.