British journalist Peter Oborne launches furious attack on ECB for cancelling Pakistan tour

[SaadH]

ECB's hypocrisy and double-standards could fast lose them friends

Time and again, the board is demanding standards of others which they are nowhere near maintaining themselves.

www.espncricinfo.com

The ECB may well find itself short of friends the next time it calls for help. This was to have been a symbolically important tour. England have not visited Pakistan since 2005, after all, so this was an opportunity to thank the country for their assistance in 2020 and celebrate the return of normality to a cricket-loving nation which has been starved of the sport. It should have improved relationships.



Instead it has further demonstrated the divide between the cricket world's haves and have-nots. Instead, it has provided a reminder that the richer cricket boards - and the richer cricket players - do not fully understand (or accept) their wider responsibilities to the game. And, most of all, it has shown the hypocrisy and double-standards which pervade in cricket's most affluent nations.

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Well written article....Big Three thinks , they rule the world of cricket... unfortunately, other nations have failed to put up United front to fight this prejudice....

That will all change with the next party in charge of the gov't. We have very short memories and the next PCB chorman will be a compliant servant of the mafia only looking to enrich himself and his friends like that cretin Najam "Big Four" Sethi....

 

[Adecypher]

This is just a "topi drama" ... will have zero impact on reversing not only the current decision BUT any future PREDETERMINED decisions to punish Pakistan for exercising its Rights to stand-up against coordinated bullying by the farangis in realm of geopolitics...

 

[Cookie Monster]

People who keep saying this has nothing to do with politics are fooling themselves. This has everything to do with politics.
Australia, West Indies, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Bangladesh & even Afghanistan should be the only places we should visit. UK and NZ should be banned by PCB for 2 years atleast and they should openly state this as the reaction to their acts.

Going forward...Pak should only visit the countries that visit Pakistan. Any country that refuses to play in Pakistan...Pakistan should refuse to play in that country...
...if matches are still to be held with that country...they should be held in some third country(like UAE) so that country also loses revenue like Pakistan does. These conditions should be written in a binding contract...
...if not...then just quit cricket. It's been ruined by all these politics.

 

[Dalit]

View attachment 779329

• Oborne says British High Commission was happy with the security situation in Pakistan.
• Says Pakistan tour cancelled because of player power and the "craven, pusillanimous, cowardly" ECB.
• Says ECB "kicked one of our closest cricketing allies, to whom we owe an enormous debt of gratitude and honour."

Another British journalist has slammed the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) for cancelling the tour of English men's and women's cricket teams to Pakistan.

On Monday, the ECB had called the upcoming tour off citing the "mental and physical well-being" of the players. The decision had come days after New Zealand had pulled its team out of Pakistan at the last minute ahead of its series due to supposed "security" concerns.

Speaking to Sky News, journalist and author Peter Oborne said the "English Cricket's security assessment [of Pakistan] was unchanged and [the country] was judged to be safe."

"The British High Commission was happy with the [security situation]," he said, adding that despite the events going on in Afghanistan, the security advice said it was okay to travel to Pakistan.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1440238553024188424

He questioned why the Chairman of the ECB, Ian Watmore, hadn't come forward to present a justification for the cancellation of the tour.

"Can you ask invisible Ian to come on to Sky TV and justify his decision? Because it stinks!" Oborne angrily said.

When asked why, in his opinion, the ECB made the decision to cancel the tour, Oborne went on to say that the board members are "pusillanimous, they are afraid of the players, and they are keeping in with the Indians — particularly the Indian Premier League."

He added: "One notices that Eoin Morgan, the English cricket captain, who pulled out of the Bangladesh tour [in 2016], is playing in the IPL."

"It smells to me — I can't tell this as a matter of fact — but we need to know this is player power and a craven, pusillanimous, cowardly board, prepared to kick one of our closest cricketing allies, to whom we owe an enormous debt of gratitude and honour," Oborne said while lambasting the ECB.

'Hypocrisy and double standards'
Prior to Oborne, veteran cricket journalist George Dobell had taken the ECB to the cleaners for cancelling its tour to Pakistan and had called it out on its "hypocrisy."

In a piece written for ESPNcricinfo, Dobell pointed out how the law and order situation in the UK itself broke down a few days before the ICC Champions Trophy clash between India and Pakistan in 2017.

He was referring to a terrorist incident on London Bridge when a van was driven into pedestrians and the occupants of the van jumped out, going about on a stabbing spree. That venue, as Dobell pointed out, was about two miles from the venue for the tournament's final, at The Oval. Eleven people died, and 48 more were injured.

"But the next day, the game in Birmingham - about 110 miles northwest of London - went ahead. Indeed, every game in the tournament went ahead. Despite an obvious increase in security measures - including roadblocks hundreds of yards from grounds and armed police at matches - none of the teams went home and every match was completed.

"At the time, many of us celebrated the defiant spirit that refused to be bowed by threats," he wrote.

He said that if life should be allowed to go on in Leicester and London, the same should be done for "Lahore and Larkana."

He said that ECB's walking away from the Pakistan tour proved that it "was a culture of double standards which appears to view some nations are far less important than others."

'Nothing to do with security issues'
Akin to Oborne and Dobell, renowned broadcaster Ebony Jewel Rainford Brent termed the ECB's decision to cancel its Pakistan tour “disappointing” and said that the board's statement regarding the cancellation of the tour has "nothing to do with security issues or concerns."

"It [England] screams of a team that has more power than the other side and have made a decision, not thinking about the impact," she said, adding that “disappointment is the word that comes to my mind after looking at the statement issued by the ECB for the cancellation of its tour."

British journalist Peter Oborne launches furious attack on ECB for cancelling Pakistan tour

Oborne says British High Commission was happy with the security situation in Pakistan.Says Pakistan tour cancelled because of player power and the craven, pusillanimous, cowardly ECB.Says ECB kicked one of our closest cricketing allies, to whom...

www.geo.tv

Looks like one honorable Brit who hasn't sold himself out like the rest.

 

[SaadH]

We'd have to admit we've been check mated by the Indians in Cricket.

We have to take a page out of the Americans' playbook and see the futility of continuing to play cricket and make an honorable exit which they didn't quite manage in Afghanistan. It took them 20 long years to make the right decision.

We on the other hand are going on forever thinking the dynamics will change. They won't, we need to focus on our economy and spend the next 25 years strengthening our finances and global clout, we can the revisit rejoining the cricket world at the end of 25 years. Live in the exile like South Africa did and come bigger and stronger.

 

[AZMwi]

once a gentlemen's game, now destroyed by indian petty politics.

 

[Ahmet Pasha]

White chamri worshipping Indians are everywhere unfortunately.

 

[IceCold]

There are some sane minds still. Thank you for your support and calling out this hypocrisy for what it is.

 

[Goritoes]

As I said in other thread, India has destroyed the Cricket with their filthy attitude and hatred towards Pakistan, Pakistan should just divert the funds from Cricket towards other sports for as long as those disgusting Indians are in ICC they will do this kind of scummy things to harm Pakistan and Cricket in General.

 

[TNT]

Pakistan needs to retaliate, though i doubt any steps would be taken by an idiot like ramiz raja.
Pakistan need to cancel any future tours of NZ and England and that too at the very last minute. Pakistan should also kick out all NZ andd England players from PSL. For once we need to take a stand.

 

[koolio]

It's confirmed from the press conference of interior minister and information minister, dirty Sanghi scheme was involved in the cancellation of New Zealand and England teams to tour Pakistan, on false and fabricated intelligence.

 

[ProudPak]

ANYTHING but cricket. Would be great if we had a tennis star.

Sonia mirza is no longer Indian...looool

 

[Falconless]

Let’s convince the Chinese or the Americans to burn money on cricket, that’s the only way we can undo India’s influence in the ICC.

 

[ARMalik]

Pakistan does not have the will to do anything so nothing will change. Full Stop.