![\"However,](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/However--he-was-firm-about-India-s-long-standing-p_1757789715898.jpg\" "\\"However,")
However, he was firm about India\u2019s long-standing position on bilateral series with Pakistan. (HT) <\/p>\nAmid the ongoing row over Sunday\u2019s India versus Pakistan cricket match in the Asia Cup, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Member of Parliament (MP) and former sports minister Anurag Thakur clarified that while India may face Pakistan in multinational tournaments, India\u2019s stand on bilateral cricket ties remains unchanged.<\/p>\n
However, he was firm about India\u2019s long-standing position on bilateral series with Pakistan. (HT) <\/p>\n
Thakur while speaking in Pune on Saturday said that India\u2019s participation in such matches is a \u201ccompulsion\u201d driven by tournament rules, not a shift in its diplomatic and national policies.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen multinational tournaments are organised by Asian Cricket Council (ACC) or International Cricket Council (ICC), it becomes a compulsion, a necessity for nations to participate. If they don\u2019t do that, they will be eliminated from the tournament, they will have to forfeit the match, and the other team will get the points,\u201d said Thakur.<\/p>\n
However, he was firm about India\u2019s long-standing position on bilateral series with Pakistan.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut India doesn\u2019t play bilateral tournaments with Pakistan. We have made this decision for years that India won\u2019t play bilateral tournaments with Pakistan until the country stops terrorist attacks on India,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Thakur\u2019s clarification came amid calls from opposition parties, including AIMIM and Shiv Sena (UBT), among others, to cancel India\u2019s match with Pakistan following the Pahalgam terror attack.<\/p>\n
Opposition parties have slammed the BJP and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) over the September 14 India-Pakistan Asia Cup cricket match.<\/p>\n
Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray announced that his party will protest against the match on Sunday, adding, \u201cblood and cricket cannot flow together\u201d.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra Congress on Friday called it an insult to the kin of those killed in the Pahalgam terror attack and soldiers who have been martyred in the line of duty.<\/p>\n
The Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) said the government\u2019s dual standards had been exposed after it allowed the match to proceed.<\/p>\n
The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to entertain a request to urgently list a plea seeking an interim stay on the cricket match between India and Pakistan, which is scheduled to take place in Dubai on September 14.<\/p>\n
The two nations last met in a bilateral series in 2012\/13. Since then, their encounters have been limited to global or continental competitions like the Asia Cup or the ODI and T20 World Cups. This latest clash comes against the backdrop of heightened tensions following Operation Sindoor.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has become leader of opposing Bharat\u201d: Thakur on Gandhi skipping V-P oath ceremony<\/b><\/p>\n
Pune: BJP MP Anurag Thakur on Saturday criticised Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, for skipping the oath-taking ceremony of Vice-President CP Radhakrishnan, saying he has become the \u201cLeader of Opposing Bharat\u201d and is \u201cnowhere where he is needed\u201d.<\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters, Thakur said, \u201cWhen the Parliament is in session, LoP doesn\u2019t attend it. When Independence Day is celebrated, LoP doesn\u2019t attend the celebrations at the Red Fort. LoP doesn\u2019t attend the oath ceremony of the V-P-elect. The public didn\u2019t make an LoP for the first 10 years. If he has become an LoP for the third time, he has become Leader of Opposing Bharat instead of Leader of Opposition…He is nowhere where he is needed. But Rahul Gandhi leads in opposing India.\u201d<\/p>\n
With agency inputs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amid the ongoing row over Sunday\u2019s India versus Pakistan cricket match in the Asia Cup, Bharatiya Janata Party…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4101],"tags":[144378,114385,1406,730,27834,6026,50379,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-422391","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-anurag-thakur","9":"tag-asia-cup","10":"tag-cricket","11":"tag-india","12":"tag-india-vs-pakistan","13":"tag-pakistan","14":"tag-pune","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115199823346818599","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}