The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) have issued a blanket ban on Pakistan from participating in future editions of the World Championship of Legends (WCL).
In the aftermath of the tension between the two nations, India boycotted their WCL 2025 league game against Pakistan at Edgbaston on July 20. The two teams were awarded one point apiece.
Pakistan topped the league table, while India finished fourth, which meant that the two teams were pitted against one another in a semi-final at the same venue on July 31. India refused to play this game as well, allowing Pakistan to qualify for the final. There, Pakistan lost to South Africa after AB de Villiers waltzed away to a third hundred in four innings.
In a subsequent meeting, the PCB members “reviewed with considerable disappointment WCL’s appalling conduct of awarding points to a willfully forfeiting team, and the content of the press releases of the WCL announcing the cancellation of the scheduled India vs. Pakistan legends matches.”
In their own release, they mentioned that these the WCL statements were “tainted with hypocrisy and bias”, and the contents “highlight a duality where the narrative of ‘peace through sport’ is selectively applied and sporting events are held hostage to political expediency and narrow commercial interests”.
Highlighting their advocation for “the separation of sports and politics”, the PCB emphasised on their “unwavering belief” that cricket “should solely serve as a platform for goodwill, healthy competition, and mutual respect”.
“The WCL’s apology for ‘hurting the sentiments’, whilst being farcical, inadvertently acknowledges that the cancellation was not based on cricketing merit, but rather on succumbing to a specific nationalistic narrative. This bias, masquerading as sensitivity, sends an unacceptable message to the international sporting community,” continued the statement.
The release concluded that the board “can no longer condone participation in an event where the fundamental principles of fair play and unbiased administration are compromised by external pressures” and that it cannot allow the players to participate in events where “the spirit of the game is overshadowed by skewed politics that undermines the very essence of sportsmanship and the gentleman’s game”.
