Pakistan PM sets up committee to decide on national team's participation in ODI World Cup in India

Islamabad, July 8: Pakistan prime minister Shehbaz Sharif has set up a high-level committee, headed by Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto, to decide on the national cricket team's participation in the 2023 ODI World Cup, set to be held in India in October-November, later this year.

According to an ESPNcricinfo report, the committee's main task will be to make recommendations about Pakistan's travel plans to India and based on that, the Pakistan prime minister will sign off on the country's participation in the mega event.

The development comes after Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had last week written a letter to the government seeking advice on whether the team is allowed to travel to India, and, if so, if there are any reservations about any of the five venues. The PCB in its letter had also asked the government if it wanted to send a security delegation to India.

The report further mentioned that the committee will decide whether Pakistan will travel to Ahmedabad for their third league-stage game against India on October 15. Apart from that, it will also make recommendations for Pakistan's tour of the other four Indian cities they are scheduled to play in.

As of now, Pakistan are scheduled to play the Netherlands and Sri Lanka in Hyderabad, India in Ahmedabad, Australia and New Zealand in Bengaluru, Bangladesh and England in Kolkata, and Afghanistan and South Africa in Chennai.

Apart from foreign minister Zardari, interior minister Rana Sanaullah and law and justice minister Azam Nazeer Tarar are some other names on the committee. It will also consist of Ehsan ur Rehman Mazari, Maryam Aurangzeb, Asad Mehmood, Aminul Haque, Qamar Zaman Kaira, and Tariq Fatemi, the special assistant on foreign affairs to the PM.

The committee, which also includes heads of the intelligence agencies and the foreign secretary, has representation from across different political parties.