Pakistan will not pull out of their upcoming bilateral series against Afghanistan, like Australia did, with PCB chairman Najam Sethi saying that “cricket and politics should be kept separate”. The series in March, however, will now comprise three T20Is and not ODIs and will be played at an offshore venue, with the Afghanistan and Pakistan boards sharing the revenue 50-50.
On January 12, Cricket Australia had announced its decision to withdraw from playing Afghanistan because of the Taliban’s “further restrictions on women’s and girls’ education” in Afghanistan. When asked about PCB’s stance on the issue, Sethi said:
“That is not our business and we don’t like to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries. My personal stance is that politics and cricket shouldn’t be mixed up, so following that principle the series is subject to pending approvals from the Pakistan government and I think approvals will be granted.”
The switch from ODIs to T20Is was made because both Pakistan and Afghanistan have already qualified for the 2023 ODI World Cup in India and so the World Cup Super League points don’t matter so much. “I met with senior members of the Afghanistan Cricket Committee and they asked us to play the (ODI) series, but they didn’t find the appeal to play the series,” Sethi said at a news conference on Monday. “It’s mainly because the series is about scoring points [for the Super League] and now it doesn’t matter who wins. So, subject to government approval, we will be playing in Sharjah shortly after the PSL. We’ve agreed to play three T20Is, split 50% of the series’ revenue evenly, and outsource production together.”
A bilateral series against Pakistan in 2021 was to be hosted by Afghanistan, UAE, but had to be postponed after the Taliban took over Afghanistan due to a lack of commercial flights from Kabul at the time. I did. The T20I series will run from March 20th to 28th. Pakistan will play another three-game ODI series against Afghanistan in August 2023.