BCCI to request ICC to ban Pakistan from World Cup

The World Cup begins on May 30 in England and the two neighbours are set to clash on June 16 at Old Trafford.

The Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) has reportedly considering sending a letter to the ICC demanding Pakistan be barred from the upcoming World Cup in England.
According to The Times of India report, the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) chief Vinod Rai has given his approval to BCCI CEO Rahul Johri to shoot the letter to cricket's global governing body.
As per the letter, if International Cricket Council (ICC) decides against BCCI's demand, India might consider withdrawing from the tournament itself, the report added.
However, a final call on whether the board will actually send the letter will be taken on Thursday.
India are scheduled to clash with Pakistan in a group match on June 16 at Old Trafford. Some prominent Indian cricketers including Harbhajan Singh and Sourav Ganguly have called for India to boycott that game in protest of the attack. All ICC member boards are meant to be at a scheduling workshop from February 24-26.
The ICC said on Wednesday a decision on the group match between India and Pakistan at the ODI World Cup will be taken at its next meeting.
Former BCCI officials Sanjay Patel and Rajiv Shukla had demanded that India boycott the World Cup match against Pakistan following the recent suicide attack in Jammu and Kashmir in which 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers were killed.
"There is no indication that any World Cup match will not go ahead as planned. Sport, in particular cricket, has the wonderful ability to bring people together and unite communities. We will work with our members on that basis," Richardson was quoted as saying.
According to ICC officials, the game's global governing body is likely to take a call on cricket ties between the two south Asian nations at the February 27 meeting in Dubai.
Meanwhile, amid calls for boycott, the clamour for tickets for the marquee ODI World Cup clash between India and Pakistan has reached a crescendo, with more than 400,000 applicants for the 25,000 seater Old Trafford stadium.
ICC World Cup tournament director Steve Elworthy, during a promotional event in London, said that demand for tickets for the Indo-Pak group league clash is way more than Australia against England game or the final at the Lord's.

With inputs from IANS, Reuters