After the Chairman of the Dubai Cricket Council Abdul Rahman Falaknaz did not shy away one bit from offering to host more IPL games in the future, he has now come on the front foot and offered to host a bilateral cricket series between the two nemesis nations India and Pakistan.
After successfully hosting big-ticket cricket events like the PSL 2021, IPL 2021, and most recently the ICC T20 World Cup in the UAE, Falaknaz is confident that the country could in fact be the perfect neutral venue for India and Pakistan who might agree on playing there rather than on each other’s home soils due to the ever-so-increasing strained political relations between the two neighbouring countries.
“The best thing would be to get India-Pakistan matches here. When Sharjah used to host India and Pakistan all those years ago, it was like a war. But it was a good war, it was a sporting war and it was fantastic,” Falaknaz was quoted as saying by the Khaleej Times.
“I remember (Bollywood actor) Raj Kapoor came once with his family. During the awards night, he took the mic and said, ‘How wonderful it is to have these India-Pakistan battles in Sharjah. Cricket brings people together, cricket has brought us together, and let us remain this way,'” he added.
“So this is what we would like to do. If we can convince India to come and play here against Pakistan once a year or twice a year, it would be fantastic,” concluded the Dubai Cricket Council chairman.
Notably, India and Pakistan have not played a bilateral cricket series since 2013 due to highly fragile political relations between the Asian nations. Ever since then, they have only met in ICC events and their latest encounter happened at the T20 World Cup 2021 in Dubai, where Virat Kohli’s Men in Blue for the very first time in WCs were outplayed by Babar Azam-led Men in Green as Pakistan broke the jinx of losing to India in ICC World Cups by scripting history through an emphatic 10-wicket win over their bitter rivals.
The T20 World Cup was originally supposed to be hosted by the BCCI in India but was later shifted to the UAE in wake of the uncertain situation related to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. India will now host the 2023 ODI World Cup whereas Ramiz Raja-led PCB won the rights to host the 2025 Champions Trophy.
The next T20 World Cup, however, is scheduled to be held in Australia in less than a year as the defending champions would look to add on to their maiden World T20 title they had won by spoiling a resilient New Zealand side in the finals of the 2021 edition at Dubai International Stadium.
