India will not go to Pakistan for Asia Cup in 2023

With the Asia Cup 2023 scheduled to be held in Pakistan, BCCI secretary Jay Shah has dropped a huge update on whether the Indian cricket team will travel across the border to play the tournament next year.

India, who last toured Pakistan back in 2006, will have to wait further as Shah stated that the tournament will be held at neutral venue, a decision that was taken during 91st Annual General Meeting in Mumbai on Tuesday.

"Neutral venue for Asia Cup is not unprecedented and we have decided that we will not travel to Pakistan," Jay Shah, the secretary of the BCCI and also the president of the ACC, said. "It's the govt which decides over the permission of our team visiting Pakistan so we won't comment on that but for the 2023 Asia Cup, it is decided that the tournament will be held at a neutral venue."

As per the FTP released earlier, Pakistan are scheduled to hold two big ICC events in the next three years - the Asia Cup (which will be a 50-over format ahead of the 2023 World Cup) next year and the Champions Trophy in 2025. Since cricket returned to Pakistan after a decade-long absence, this is the first time that the country was rewarded with the hosting rights of two major ICC events. But with the BCCI making the announcement of a neutral venue, the developments that are expected to follow or how the PCB and other officials react remains to be seen.

The development comes as a complete 360 degree turn since the possibilities of India travelling to Pakistan looked highly likely as per reports emerging last week. A Cricbuzz report stated that a note was shared with all state associations which mentioned the Asia Cup in Pakistan as one of the tournaments the Indian team was expected to take part in. "It will be subject to the clearance of the Government of India as always," a BCCI official was quoted as saying. As it turned out, it was not the case.

India vs Pakistan has always been a highly-awaited cricketing contest. But contrary to the 1980s, 1990s and the early 2000s, where there were no shortages of an IND-PAK tie, bilateral series between the two have been entirely scrapped due to political tensions between the two nations. Since the last bilateral series between the two countries back in 2012-13, India and Pakistan have done battle only 10 times in 10 years, all of which were contested during ICC events.

In August, ahead of the Asia Cup, when Rohit Sharma was asked about the possibilities of a bilateral series between the two nations, the India captain responded by saying: "If I had the option to answer this question, I would have given it. Respectable boards make these decisions. This is not in our hands but if boards decide to play, then we will play."