Former Int'l Cricket Council President Ehsan Mani has criticized BCCI President Anurag Thakur for his “inflammatory” comments on Pakistan and asked the PCB "to push for India to be stripped" of hosting ICC events. Mani said on Tuesday night that Pakistani cricket officials "should come strong at the ICC executive board meeting in Cape Town next week." Mani: "The Indian Cricket Board president, with his immature and inflammatory statements, has given an opening to Pakistan to plead its case more effectively at the ICC meeting." Mani said that the Pakistan delegation "should also demand that the ICC should ask the BCCI president to explain his position in making his statements against Pakistan" (PTI, 10/5).
CONMEBOL on Tuesday "reversed its decision to play the Copa Libertadores final as one single match in a neutral stadium and announced it will continue with the existing format" of home and away legs in the stadiums of each finalist. CONMEBOL had on Monday officially announced planned expansion for the Copa Libertadores. South American football's governing body said via news release that the change of heart was based upon the realization that "viability and technical studies are needed in the future to organise a world-class final match in one pre-determined site" (ESPN.com, 10/4).
The 12-nation Kabaddi World Cup kicks off this week in India, with a "row over a decision to bar arch-rivals Pakistan from competing, threatening to overshadow the tag-wrestling sport's showcase event." Kabaddi "has been hit with controversy over a decision to exclude highly fancied Pakistan." Int'l Kabaddi Federation Chief Deoraj Chaturvedi, who is from India, said that Pakistan "has been denied entry because of a spike in tensions between the two nations." He said, "This is not the right time to engage with Pakistan." Pakistan accused the IKF of "unfairly targeting the country, saying both nations should have been excluded if there were security concerns" (AFP, 10/5).
The Pakistan Field Hockey Federation (PHF), dismayed by a "cold-shouldered response from the government, has decided to postpone the first-ever Pakistan Hockey League which was scheduled to be launched in November." The major hurdle "in launching the hockey league was the non-issuance of No Objection Certificate by the Punjab Government for which the PHF had applied well before time but failed to receive it despite the passage of a few months." PHL Secretary Shahbaz Ahmed Senior said, "We have decided to postpone the PHL after failing to get any response from the government" (DAWN, 10/5).
