MUMBAI: India badminton legend Prakash Padukone on Tuesday said that sports and politics should not be mixed with each other, and that the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup match between India and Pakistan should proceed as planned.
India and Pakistan are slated to lock horns against each other in the World Cup on October 24 in Dubai. “According to me, the match between India and Pakistan should go on. Sports and politics should not be mixed together,” Padukone told ANI.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) vice president Rajeev Shukla on Monday said India will have to play arch-rivals Pakistan in the T20 World Cup as no team can refuse to play another side in a tournament organised by International Cricket Council (ICC).
Earlier on Tuesday, Aam Aadmi Party had demanded that the Indian cricket team should opt out of its match against Pakistan.
There have been calls from various political entities that the BCCI and the government should reconsider playing Pakistan in the T20 World Cup as in the past few days, Jammu and Kashmir, which has been under Union government administration since 2018, has witnessed a spate of targeted killings of civilians, especially non-locals.
