Extraordinary developments are affecting cricket’s top echelons

Cricket’s changing landscape is generating unanticipated situations. These are occurring not just because of cricket but also because of geopolitics. These are most notable on the Asian subcontinent where increased tensions threaten to cause further fissures in the rivalry between India’s and Pakistan’s cricket teams.

The 2025 Asian Cricket Council Cup is scheduled to be held in September in T20 format, involving eight countries. These are the five full members of the ACC — India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan — plus three that emerged from a qualification process. They are the UAE, Hong Kong and Oman. Teams have been divided into two groups of four, the top two teams from each group qualifying for a single-group Super Four stage. 

It has never been made clear which country or countries would host the tournament. In July 2024, the ACC’s Invitation for Expression of Interest indicated that India would be the hosts. Later reports suggested that India and Sri Lanka would be joint hosts. Now, rumours are rife that the tournament may be cancelled or switched to a neutral venue. More extreme suggestions are to expel Pakistan from the tournament and disband the ACC, replacing it with a different composition that excludes Pakistan.

Security is, of course, the overriding concern and in the current febrile atmosphere where trust between the parties is broken, this will be difficult and expensive to provide.

The Indian team’s coach, Gautam Gambhir, is reported to have said “that India should refrain from playing against Pakistan till terrorism is stopped and something is done.”

This view seems to gel with those of Rajeev Shukla, the vice president of the Board for Control of Cricket in India, who recently