Pakistan makes call on India travel for World Cup: ‘Sports should not be mixed with politics’

Pakistan has decided to send its national cricket team to India to participate in this year’s 50-over World Cup, the foreign office said on Sunday.

The neighbouring countries, who share fraught relations, have played each other only in multi-team events at neutral venues over the last decade.

“Pakistan has consistently maintained that sports should not be mixed with politics … Pakistan believes that the state of bilateral relations with India should not stand in the way of fulfilling its international sports-related obligations,” the foreign office statement said.

India, which hosts the World Cup in October and November, has ruled out travelling to Pakistan for the Asia Cup, which is scheduled to begin on August 31.

Pakistan’s Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari was among the foreign ministers who travelled to India’s Goa last month for a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting, becoming the first senior Pakistani leader to visit India in nine years.