Pakistan cricket is important not because they play well, as they don't play well: Former Indian cricketer

Former Indian cricketer and commentator Aakash Chopra shared his opinion on Pakistan’s decision to boycott the India fixture for the forthcoming ICC T20 World Cup 2026 campaign, scheduled on Sunday, February 15.

Notably, the value of an India vs Pakistan T20 World Cup match is expected to be around US$250 million, roughly translating to ₹2300 crore, according to a report published on the Hindustan Times. If PCB decides to boycott the game, the ICC might issue several sanctions on Pakistan.

"Firstly, it's a slightly rough calculation. It's not written anywhere how much you would earn from a particular game. The rumor market is hot at the moment. Everyone is saying whatever they wish. So you can't say that you get a quarter billion dollars from this," Chopra said on his YouTube channel.

"Plenty of things might happen. Everyone else will say, 'Tum to maroge hi, hume kyon le ke doob rahe ho (You will die, why are you drowning us with you).' They will ask them to be thrown out. Don't make them a part of the FTP. You can reprimand them because they are not bringing anything. You might not give NOC to their players or don't have bilateral engagements with them," he added.

"Pakistan cricket is important not because they play well, as they don't play well. They have reached the final of an ICC event only twice in the last 10 years. They won for the last time in 2017 and reached the final in 2022. It's not like they are an incredible cricketing team," he said.

"Pakistan is important because the India-Pakistan rivalry is alive. The day you kill that rivalry, that India and Pakistan will not play against each other, India will continue on their merry way, but Pakistan's value, in terms of what they bring to the table, absolutely diminishes," Chopra concluded.

India squad: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Rinku Singh.

Pakistan squad: Salman Ali Agha (c), Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Khawaja Nafay, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Salman Mirza, Naseem Shah, Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shadab Khan, Usman Khan, Usman Tariq.

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