Asia Cup 2023: PCB invites Jay Shah to Pakistan to watch opening match of tournament

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Friday invited Jay Shah, BCCI Secretary and President of ACC, to attend the opening match of the Asia Cup between Pakistan and Nepal on August 30 at Multan.

The PCB said besides Shah it has also invited heads of other boards who are part of the Asian Cricket Council for the opening match.

A well-informed source in the PCB said the invitation was sent to Shah more out of hope than any realistic expectation of him visiting Pakistan.

"The PCB has basically followed up on the invitation which was extended verbally by Chairman Zaka Ashraf to Jay Shah when they both met in Durban for the ICC meeting," the source said.

The Pakistani media had then reported that Shah accepted the PCB's invitation, but the BCCI secretary denied this claim. "The PCB was obviously embarrassed after the Pakistani media reported that Jay Shah



had accepted Zaka Ashraf's invitation and the Indian board official later flatly denied this," he said.

Aware of the existing relations between India and Pakistan, the source said PCB wanted to show that it does not mix sports with politics by extending the invitation to Shah. "The idea is to basically highlight Pakistan's chosen stance on cricket relations with India that it does not mix politics with sports," he added.

The Asia Cup 2023 will be held from August 30 to September 17 across venues in Pakistan and Sri Lanka.Meanwhile, Smith and Starc's exit has given Marnus Labuschagne a reprieve in the ODIs. The right-hand batter has been added to Australia's ODI squad after being axed from the 50-over team when Australia named its squad for the South Africa series and an initial one for the ODI World Cup. Labuschagne has struggled for runs in the format, scoring 847 runs in 30 matches at an average of 31.