Thousands of mourners across several Indian cities attended funerals on Saturday of soldiers killed in a deadly suicide bombing in Indian-administered Kashmir on Thursday. Photo: Debajyoti Chakraborty/NurPhoto

Indian broadcaster announces it will not be televising Pakistan Twenty20 league following suicide bombing

By ASIA TIMES STAFF 19 February 2019

Indian broadcaster IMG Reliance has withdrawn from its contract to provide coverage of the Pakistan Twenty20 league following the bloody attack in Kashmir last week, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced on Sunday.

The company was televising the Pakistan Super League, which is being played in the United Arab Emirates because of security concerns, and it was also due to televise the last knockout matches to be held in Karachi and Lahore next month.

Forty-one Indian soldiers were killed in the suicide bombing, which was claimed by a Pakistan-based militant group. It was the deadliest attack in the 30-year-old armed conflict in the disputed Himalayan region.

The PCB said it would announce the new live broadcasters of the tournament on Monday.

“The PCB always had a contingency plan in place, and we are confident we will be in a position to announce the new partner,” PCB managing director Wasim Khan said in a statement

“The PCB has also noted the recent turn of events and expresses its extreme disappointment as we have always believed and emphasized that sports and politics should be kept separate,” he added.

The PCB said it will take up the matter with the Board of Control for Cricket in India and the International Cricket Council at a scheduled meeting in Dubai later this month.

– with reporting by Agence France-Presse