No boycott order yet for Pakistan Women's A vs India clash

Despite Pakistan's government boycotting the men's T20 World Cup match against India, no directive has been issued to the Pakistan Women's A team ahead of their Rising Stars Asia Cup clash with India in Bangkok.

India Women's A and Pakistan Women's A teams are scheduled to face-off on February 15

After the Pakistan government's boycott of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup clash in the group stage against India, no instruction has been received by the Pakistan Women's A team regarding their status for the Rising Stars Asia Cup clash against India Women's A in Bangkok, reported ESPNCricinfo on Monday.

Key Points

Pakistan Women’s A team has received no instruction to boycott its Rising Stars Asia Cup match against India.
PCB announced the Women’s A squad on the same day the men’s T20 World Cup boycott was declared.
Tournament preparations are continuing as planned, according to ESPNCricinfo.

The report stated that the preparation for the tournament, starting from February 13, is going normally as of now, with both arch-rivals set to meet on February 15.

This tournament has now found a new dimension Pakistan having decided to boycott their group-stage match against India in the ICC World T20 World Cup, scheduled for February 15.

The Pakistan government said in a post on X that the Pakistan Team "shall not take the field" in the match against India without giving any reason. The match was scheduled for February 15. Pakistan is in Group A with India, Namibia, the Netherlands and the USA for the marquee men's T20 cricket tournament.

A press release was also notably issued by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announcing the Women's A team squad on Sunday, the same day the men's T20 WC clash boycott was announced, with Pakistan A Women's team in Group A with India 'A', UAE and Nepal.

ICC is yet to decide on convening a board meeting to discuss possible sanctions against PCB

As per ESPNCricinfo, while the speculations are active about the sanctions PCB could face after the boycott of the marquee clash in the men's T20 WC, the International Cricket Council (ICC) is yet to decide if a board meeting is needed to discuss the issue.

Any discussions of potential sanctions take place with the consultations with the 12 full member boards and three representatives of associate members alongside the ICC Chairman.

Till now, ICC has not given any alert of an emergency meeting to the board with PCB, indicating it is unlikely to respond officially in writing to the ICC on the boycott and on the reason behind the government's decision.

Following the third T20I against Australia on Sunday, Pakistan skipper Salman Agha was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo on the subject of the boycott of the India clash, "We are definitely going for the World Cup. That is not our decision. We cannot do anything. What our government, our PCB chairman (Mohsin Naqvi), say, we have to do that. So what they tell us, we will do that."

Notably, this comes just days after Bangladesh were recently replaced by Scotland in the tournament after they refused to play their matches in India following the release of pacer Mustafizur Rahman by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on instructions of the BCCI in light of atrocities against minorities in Bangladesh.

Hours after Pakistan decided to boycott its T20 World Cup group stage clash against India, the International Cricket Council (ICC) said that "selective participation" is not fair with the "fundamental premise of a global sporting event" and that it expects the PCB to explore a mutually acceptable resolution, which protects the interests of all stakeholders.