Since ICC postponed the T20 World Cup scheduled to take place in Australia later this year, a lot of speculations have been going around. Former Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar has grabbed his opportunity to launch an attack on BCCI. He vented out his anger claiming that ICC bowed down to BCCI’s power.
Incidentally, after a lot of deliberations, ICC officially postponed the global event owing to COVID-19 pandemic. It didn’t come as a surprise as it was almost certain after Cricket Australia claimed that hosting the World Cup is unrealistic.
Shoaib Akhtar slams BCCI
Meanwhile, it opened doors for BCCI to host the lucrative IPL which yields a lot of money. Shoaib Akhtar didn’t seem impressed with ICC’s decision and launched a venomous attack on BCCI. He referred to ‘Moneygate Incident‘, claiming that BCCI always gets preferential treatment.
The former speedster stated that BCCI’s influence saved Harbhajan Singh from that controversial statement involving Andrew Symonds. Shoaib Akhtar also pointed fingers at Cricket Australia and their ethics.
“Sometimes they get easy wickets in Melbourne, at times someone calls another person a monkey but gets saved, the talk goes to boycotting the series. I am asking the Australians, where are their ethics?” Shoaib Akhtar told Geo Cricket on a YouTube show.
“You made kids cry for scratching a cricket ball and they got away by calling someone a monkey. They [BCCI] said to end the series and they [Australian Board] said no such incident happened. Are these your moral grounds, did you not get the sounds on the mic,” added Shoaib Akhtar.
Previously, Asian Cricket Council also called off Asia Cup scheduled to take place in UAE amid COVID-19 outbreak. Shoaib Akhtar believes if IPL 2020 can take place in the UAE, the organisers could have gone ahead with the Asia Cup.
Meanwhile, it is difficult to ascertain why the ICC postponed the T20 World Cup. If it is simply to make way for BCCI to host IPL, then a wrong message has been spread to other cricketing nations.
