Not only India, these teams also refused to play ICC tournament in another country, then got this 'punishment'

BCCI has refused to send the Indian team from Pakistan for the Champions Trophy 2025. Information has been given to ICC and PCB about this. The board has cited security reasons for this. There has been an uproar since this decision of BCCI. However, India is not the first team to refuse to play in another country in an ICC tournament. Before this, many teams including Australia, New Zealand, England and West Indies have done this, due to which they also had to suffer the consequences. Let us know which countries took such a decision and what was its result.

Australia, West Indies refused to play

India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka were the hosts of the 1996 World Cup. In this, Sri Lanka had to host 4 group stage matches against Australia, West Indies, Zimbabwe and Kenya. But on 31 January, just 14 days before the tournament, a bomb blast took place in the Central Bank in Colombo. More than 90 people were killed in this, while more than 1400 people were injured. After this incident, Australia and West Indies refused to go to Sri Lanka citing security reasons. Not only this, both the teams also demanded full points for the match.

When the Sri Lankan board opposed this, the ICC tried to compromise by dividing the points among the teams. But the Sri Lanka Cricket Board refused. After this, voting was held on the matter, in which the ICC won. Even then Sri Lanka did not agree and asked for re-voting with the demand of 2 points. This time it won and was assured of a total of 4 points. In the end, it won the World Cup trophy by defeating Australia in Lahore, Pakistan.

This also happened in the 2003 World Cup

Like the 1996 World Cup, a similar incident happened in the 2003 World Cup. This time the hosting was with South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya. Then the England team refused to play in Harare, Zimbabwe due to security reasons after the leader of the opposition party was arrested. England had to suffer the consequences of this. Zimbabwe was given full points without any debate, which benefited it. The Zimbabwe team scored a total of 14 points in the group stage and managed to qualify for the Super Six. On the other hand, the England team could only get 12 points and was eliminated from the tournament.

In the same tournament, like England, New Zealand had refused to play against Kenya in Nairobi. It had also expressed concern about the safety of its players. The New Zealand Cricket Board had said, citing its sources, that it had received information about a terrorist incident in Nairobi. It said that many terrorist groups were active and could attack at any time. The points of this match were given to Kenya. Despite this, the New Zealand team was successful in qualifying for the Super Six. On the other hand, Kenya's team benefited from getting the points of the match against New Zealand and this was the first and only time in World Cup history when it made it to the Super Six.

These countries had withdrawn from the entire tournament

In 1982, the West Indies team refused to go to New Zealand for the Women's World Cup. It withdrew from the entire tournament. However, the reason behind this was not security but the issue of 'apartheid'. Actually, in 1981, New Zealand had invited the South African rugby team to play. At that time, there were struggles going on against apartheid in South Africa. Due to the invitation to South Africa, the next year West Indies refused to send its team to the Women's World Cup to be hosted by New Zealand. After this, an International XI team made up of players from other teams participating in the tournament was fielded.

England was the host of the 2009 T20 World Cup. Zimbabwe had refused to play in this tournament. According to it, the British government did not want to give visas to Zimbabwean cricketers. That is why it took this decision. When Zimbabwe withdrew its name, Scotland's team was given entry in the tournament as the third associate nation after Ireland and Netherlands. At the same time, New Zealand withdrew its name during the 2022 Under-19 World Cup hosted by the West Indies. The New Zealand Cricket Board cited the ban imposed on children under the age of 18 due to the Covid epidemic in their country as the reason behind this.