Congress MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa on Sunday took a tough stance on India’s T20 World Cup match against Pakistan, saying neighboring Pakistan should be treated like an enemy.
Randhawa, who hails from Gurdaspur, a border district in Punjab, said, “Pakistan is an enemy of our country and should be treated as such. We have no dealings with them. People who are on the border know how Pakistan is waging a proxy war against India.”
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut took a more aggressive stance in his allegations, saying that India-Pakistan cricket matches lead to large-scale betting.
The match is scheduled for Sunday, February 15, evening in Colombo.
“This is not an India-Pakistan match. This is a Jay Shah vs Pakistan match. The people of India do not want this,” Raut said at a press conference in Mumbai, naming the ICC chief, whose father Amit Shah is India’s home minister and is considered second in command to PM Narendra Modi. Jai Shah has not yet responded to the statement.
India vs Pakistan in World Cup T20 group stage
The statement comes after Pakistan reversed its decision to boycott the group-stage event. The Pakistan team had initially decided to skip the match in solidarity with Bangladesh, which pulled out of the tournament after the ICC rejected its request to move venues outside India due to “security concerns”. The controversy began when BJP politicians and Hindutva right-wing groups cited the killings of Hindus in Bangladesh and objected to the signing of a Bangladeshi player by IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders, owned by actor Shah Rukh Khan.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Mohsin Naqvi, who is also a minister in the Shehbaz Sharif government, will attend Sunday’s match and is also expected to hold discussions with ICC officials, news agency PTI reported. Naqvi had infamously snatched the Asia Cup trophy last October after Team India refused to take it from him in his capacity as president of the Asian Cricket Council.