Mani wants PCB to pull out of their World T20 match against Indi

ISLAMABAD: Former International Cricket Council (ICC) President Ehsan Mani has urged the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to pull out of their World Twenty20 match against India at Dharamsala.The Himachal Pardesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh had said that Pakistan-India match should be moved to another venue and has expressed inability to provide security for Pakistan’s players at the Himachal Pradesh cricket ground in the Himalayan town of Dharamsala where the clash is due to take place on March 19.Mani’s advice has come in view of the threats from Himachal Pradesh state authorities that they would not allow Pakistan to play at the venue.I would advise the PCB to take these threats seriously. Because it involves the security of our players, officials, people and media who will go to India for the event, sportskeeda.com quoted Mani as saying.Comparing the situation with Australia’s boycott of the 2016 Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh, Mani quipped: ‘If this match had involved the Australian team I am sure by now they would have pulled out of the match.’They made their position on security for their players clear when they pulled out of the ICC Youth World Cup in Bangladesh earlier this year.Mani was also of the opinion that the PCB needed to make their stand on not playing in Dharamsala crystal clear.Talking about Pakistan’s attempt to re-establish Indo-Pakistan cricket relations Mani said: ‘The Pakistan government has also shown it believes in having cricketing relations with India but I would think playing in Dharamsala in this environment would be risky for the Pakistan team.’Meanwhile talks about an alternate venue have started to do the rounds however no decision has been made on this yet. ‘