{"id":263053,"date":"2026-02-01T22:15:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T22:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/263053\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T22:15:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T22:15:07","slug":"pakistan-to-play-twenty20-world-cup-but-will-boycott-game-against-india-t20-world-cup-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/263053\/","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan to play Twenty20 World Cup but will boycott game against India | T20 World Cup 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Pakistan will boycott their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/twenty20\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Twenty20<\/a> World Cup match against India on 15 February, the Pakistan government said on Sunday while approving the team\u2019s participation in the tournament.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cThe government \u2026 grants approval to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/pakistancricketteam\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pakistan cricket team<\/a> to participate in the World T20, however, the Pakistan cricket team shall not take the field in the match against India,\u201d the post on the government\u2019s X account said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Pakistan are scheduled to play their Group A matches in Sri Lanka in keeping with their policy of not touring India due to geopolitical tensions. Bilateral cricket remains suspended between the neighbours, who engaged in a military conflict that nearly snowballed into a fully fledged war last year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Their fraught political relations prompted the governing International <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/cricket\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cricket<\/a> Council to broker an arrangement allowing them to play at a neutral venue when their neighbour hosts a global tournament.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The 2009 champions had earlier announced their squad for the 20-team tournament beginning on 7 February, maintaining their participation was subject to government approval.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Their decision to boycott the India match is a serious blow to the tournament because an India-Pakistan clash remains cricket\u2019s greatest blockbuster.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">This is not the first example of political tension affecting the tournament. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/2026\/jan\/24\/scotland-replace-bangladesh-mens-cricket-twenty20-world-cup\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bangladesh have been replaced by Scotland<\/a> in the global showpiece after their refusal to travel to India over safety concerns.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The latest setback is a continuation of the soured India-Pakistan relations, which manifested in last year\u2019s Asia Cup in Dubai. India beat Pakistan three times in the tournament, including in the 28 September final, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2025\/sep\/19\/cricket-diplomacy-india-pakistan-hostility-asia-cup\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">refused to shake hands<\/a> with their opponents and refused to accept the trophy from Asian Cricket Council chief Mohsin Naqvi, who happens to be Pakistan\u2019s interior minister.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pakistan will boycott their Twenty20 World Cup match against India on 15 February, the Pakistan government said on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-263053","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}