India has made their stance very clear that the Indian cricket team will not travel to Pakistan for the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), former Pakistan players and the fans have been livid after this announcement.
They’ve been very vocal about this decision from India. At the moment, there’s no confirmation about the venue of the tournament. Pakistan has said that they’ll withdraw from the tournament if the hosting opportunity is taken from them. Also, they don’t seem to agree to a hybrid model as of now.
In all this chaos, a Pakistani journalist came up with a question regarding this issue during the US Department of State’s daily press briefing. On November 14th, the principal deputy spokesperson, Vedant Patel got a bit shocked when he was asked about his stance on the issue.
“Not something for us to get involved”: US Official on India-Pakistan Champions Trophy issue
The Pakistani journalist asked, “There’s a big cricket event in Pakistan”.
To which Mr. Patel said, “Cricket? Oh, I didn’t have that on my bingo card. Go ahead”.
He was then asked, “It’s the biggest event after the Cricket World Cup, and India was set to participate, but the Indian government has refused to send the team to Pakistan. The Indian team last visited Pakistan in 2008, but due to political tensions, India has not travelled there since. Do you believe mixing politics with sports is a good idea? What’s your opinion on this”.
Patel replied that it’s not their issue to get involved in.
He said, “As it relates to relations between India and Pakistan, that’s for them to address, whether through sports or other matters. I’ll leave it to them to speak about their bilateral relationship. It’s not something for us to get involved in, but sports is undoubtedly a powerful and unifying force”.
The Principal Deputy Spokesperson concluded with, “You’ve seen this department really prioritise the role of sports diplomacy in connecting people. It’s something that our current Under Secretary for Public Affairs and Public Diplomacy, Lee Satterfield, values deeply; and our former Under Secretary, Liz Allen, really championed.
Ultimately, sports connect so many people and it’s a great way to build human-to-human and people-to-people ties. Something this administration has strongly emphasised”.
