"Why do we want to play against them?": Imran Masood after Pakistan boycotts ICC T20 match

New Delhi [India], February 1 (ANI): Congress MP Imran Masood said on Sunday that India should have refused to play Pakistan in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026 in the first place, saying the BCCI should not "compromise the country's honour," after the neighbouring country announced that they would be boycotting their group stage match.
He added that India should have maintained a clear stance against sporting ties with Pakistan.
Speaking to ANI, Masood said, "Why is India even considering playing against them? The BCCI should think about this and not compromise the country's honour. When we signed a Bangladeshi player, there was an uproar, and why do you want to play matches with Pakistanis? We shouldn't play. We said this from day one. We shouldn't have any relations with them. We should have refused from the beginning. We should have made it absolutely clear from the start."
Congress MP Manickam Tagore on the other hand highlighted that politicisation of cricket has happened for a long time, recalling how after Operation Sindoor there was a demand that India stop playing with Pakistan.

"There are people who do politics on cricket, and this kind of politics happens with the game of cricket for a long time. It is the boards which should decide, and the government should also react. There was a time when Operation Sindoor was happening. There was a huge opinion that there should not be any kind of game between the two countries because both countries were in confrontation," Tagore said.
"For it is a very important thing that if you want to escalate and you want to keep these kinds of tensions across the two countries, the normalisation of relations won't be that smooth as we expect. I hope that the government of India will take the right call."
Earlier today, Pakistan announced that it would boycott its group-stage match against India in the ICC World T20 World Cup, scheduled for February 15.
The Pakistan government said in a post on X that the Pakistan Team "shall not take the field" in the match against India.
Pakistan had announced its squad last month for the T20 World Cup, which is being hosted by India and Sri Lanka.
The Pakistan government did not give any reason for its decision.
The Indian team is in terrific form ahead of the World Cup and won the five-match T20I series against New Zealand 4-1, while Pakistan has a terrible record against India in the ICC T20 World Cups.
Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman and the country's interior minister Mohsin Naqvi, last month met Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to brief him on the matter of the International Cricket Council (ICC) decision after Bangladesh refused to send its team to India over purported "security concerns". (ANI)