Sri Lanka cricket board urges PCB to reconsider: Don’t forget that thing of 2009… What is Sri Lanka reminding Pakistan about, they must play India on 15th

Colombo. Co-host Sri Lanka Cricket has appealed to the Pakistan Cricket Board to reconsider its decision to boycott the India-Pakistan match to be held on February 15 as it could cause huge loss to all the stakeholders of the T20 World Cup. The Pakistan government has announced to boycott this big match against India in support of Bangladesh. Despite less threat from ICC, Bangladesh had withdrawn its name from the World Cup expressing concern in India.

Now after SLC has written a letter to PCB, there may be a new twist in this matter. SLC sources told PTI that their executive committee met on Tuesday and decided to write a letter to the Pakistan Cricket Board appealing to Pakistan to reconsider their decision. This letter was finally sent on Thursday.

In the letter, SLC also informed the PCB about the potential adverse impact on tourism, including cancellation of hotel bookings and flight tickets, and disruption to suppliers. SLC also said in the letter that it is ready to host the match at Premadasa Stadium and all the tickets have been sold. According to the newswire, the SLC warned the PCB that pulling out of such a major match would have far-reaching consequences, including huge economic losses, lower than expected tourism income and economic decline.

In the letter, the SLC also reminded the PCB that it had visited Pakistan several times in difficult and sensitive situations, when other countries were hesitant in coming to Pakistan, and had played an important role in bringing Pakistan cricket out of international isolation. This was the time when there was a terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team bus in Lahore in 2009 and countries had stopped visiting Pakistan.

According to a Sri Lankan news website, SLC said that it hopes that this spirit of mutual cooperation will continue in future also. While talking to the media on Thursday, Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav made it clear that his team will go to Colombo for the match against Pakistan while Pakistan captain Salman Aga said that his team will follow the orders of their government. There could be a loss of up to $250 million due to India-Pakistan match not being held in the ICC tournament.