Pakistan is a victim of terrorism. Unfortunately, it is the victim which is suffering. Terrorism has deprived Pakistan of all its happiness, and it appears that some countries and institutions have abandoned it to let it cry over its ill-fate. Pakistan has been deprived of hosting the 2011 cricket World Cup matches following the March 3 attack by armed militants on the Sri Lankan team bus. Now Pakistan cricket has become isolated in the international arena. The decision to reschedule the matches in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh has been called ‘discriminatory' and ‘legally flawed' by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), which has issued a notice to the International Cricket Council (ICC). Ijaz Butt, PCB chairman, has decided to visit the Asian cricket playing nations to garner support against the ICC board decision. PCB lawyers have rightly claimed in the notice sent to the ICC that the World Cup hosting rights were not directly awarded to Pakistan by the ICC and hence the ICC board is not authorized to take away that right. It was IDI Ltd. (ICC Development International Ltd), which is a commercial subsidiary arm of the ICC, which had entered into a contract with PCB. So, as per the contract, only IDI Ltd. can take away the right from Pakistan to host World Cup matches. Pakistan, which was awarded to host 14 matches, has lost £7 million by this decision. PCB is already bearing the losses from the cancellation of Indian and Australian tours to the country. The marketing section of PCB estimated losses to the tune of £27 million since previous year. Pakistan has a strong case against the ICC decision, and it has rightly launched a legal battle. It is indeed, an ill-conceived and hasty decision by the ICC. No prior notice was given to Pakistan, and PCB was ignored for the World Cup Central Organizing Committee (CWC) meeting which took place in Mumbai recently. Pakistan was not given a chance to explain its position and there was room that more could have been done to assess the situation to deal with the matter on a non-discriminatory basis. The World Cup will now be hosted in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Under the new allocation India will host 29 matches including a semi-final and the final, with Sri Lanka hosting 12 and Bangladesh eight. Surprisingly, we observe that all these three countries have also had problems with the law and order situation in the near past, and there is an utter need to have security assessment there as well. Sri Lanka has a long ongoing civil war. There was a recent mutinous uprising by the armed forces in Bangladesh and it refused to host the visiting Pakistan team for a series in March earlier this year due to security concerns. Talking about India, the DLF IPL 2009 was shifted to South Africa because of the law and order situation and the IPL coincided with the elections. Australia has recently refused to send its Davis Cup team to India, because of security concerns. Therefore, if security was the reason for moving the World Cup matches out of Pakistan, then it is no better in other host countries as well. In fact, nowhere in the Subcontinent is the security situation ideal. Instead of siding with the victim, ICC has rubbed salt into its wounds. The ICC first postponed and then shifted the Champions Trophy from Pakistan to South Africa, while India canceled its tour in January in the wake of last November's Mumbai attacks. All this has strained relations between the Subcontinent neighbors. The cricket-loving community has welcomed the statement of former ICC president Ehsan Mani in which he directly blamed India for having the World Cup matches moved out of Pakistan. ICC should think that its hasty decision to deprive Pakistan of hosting World Cup is affecting relations, peace and prosperity. Moreover, it should also be considered that the recent operation against militants in Pakistan is going on successfully, and hopefully situation will be normal by the time of the World Cup in 2011 and 2015. ICC has been unfair to Pakistan by shifting the World Cup matches and PCB's stance is a good move. However, PCP should have immediately garnered the support of other Asian boards after the attack on the Sri Lankan team. PCB is being criticized that its decision to abstain from voting during the ICC board meeting in Dubai on April 17 has left it on weak legal ground. Skeptics say that this should work strongly in the ICC favor. If the PCB had any objection at that point of time, they should have voted against the move instead of abstaining. As an option, those World Cup matches which were to be held in Pakistan could have been staged in neutral venues like Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Another option would have been the Saudi venue. If ICC is really interested in promoting cricket in Saudi Arabia and wants to take a revolutionary step, it can start its efforts from now on to organize some World Cup cricket matches in Saudi Arabia by accomplishing the legal processes with local Saudis as well as by solving the issue of infrastructural and financial hurdles. If the World Cup takes place in other three co-host countries, then Pakistan should boycott the event and stand for its rights. Pakistan has been victimized and treated unduly, which only strengthens the terrorists who wanted to harm Pakistan. Now thanks to ICC, the terrorists have achieved their goal. They have succeeded in depriving Pakistan of happiness and entertainment.
