T20 World Cup: “The tournament can be held without them, not without India”, Harbhajan Singh takes pleasure in Pakistan’s U-turn

Former Indian cricketer Harbhajan Singh took a dig at Pakistan’s decision to play the T20 World Cup against India, believing that Pakistan is taking this step for economic benefits. He said that Pakistan now realized that the tournament could not have been successful without India, and that they would have suffered huge financial losses if they had pulled out of the game.

Speaking to ANI, Harbhajan said, “I think they realized very late that the tournament can happen without them, but not without India. They were earlier in support of Bangladesh, but then they changed their decision due to huge financial loss and fear of ban by ICC.”

Former BCCI president Sourav Ganguly also reacted to Pakistan’s change and said that “Sports and politics are different things, and it is good that Pakistan is changing its decision and playing.” Ganguly also said that in the last few years there has not been much competition in India-Pakistan matches, but this time it is expected that Pakistan will play well.

Former cricketer Atul Wasan described Pakistan’s U-turn as “drama”, and said that this changing attitude of Pakistan is demoralizing even their own players. He also said, “This is being done just for their own satisfaction, sometimes they refuse to play, sometimes they decide to play.”

Madan Lal, a member of India’s 1983 World Cup-winning team, also supported Pakistan’s decision and said, “It is good that Pakistan is playing, because if they had not played, the charm of the tournament would have been lost.”

This U-turn of Pakistan comes after talks between Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and International Cricket Council (ICC), in which Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) had also appealed to Pakistan to take part in its match against India.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif directed the Pakistan cricket team to play India in the World Cup match to be held in Colombo on 15 February. Earlier, Pakistan had refused to play the match against India in support of Bangladesh, but now the situation has changed.

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