Pakistani minister Fawad Hussain blames India for Sri Lankans pulling out of cricket tour

New Delhi: Pakistani minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain Tuesday accused India of coercing members of the Sri Lankan cricket team into dropping out of the Pakistan tour, stirring up another controversy on Twitter.

He claimed that India had threatened to remove Sri Lanka’s players from the Indian Premier League if they don’t refuse to play in Pakistan.

Informed sports commentators told me that India threatened SL players that they ll be ousted from IPL if they don’t refuse Pak visit, this is really cheap tactic, jingoism from sports to space is something we must condemn, really cheap on the part of Indian sports authorities

— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) September 10, 2019

Only days ago, Hussain, who is the minister for science and technology, had trolled India after ISRO lost contact with Vikram lander during the moon landing.

Endia only way now you can reach moon is through Bollywood,another 100 crore and you guys ll be on the moon. on serious note extremists always fail and you failed when instead of scientists you relied on Jotshi and delayed the mission,Come out of hatred for other communities.

— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) September 8, 2019

On Monday, Sri Lanka announced that 10 of its players, including captain Dimuth Karunaratne, had opted out of the limited-overs tour in Pakistan over security concerns. The team was due to play three ODIs and three T20 matches between 27 September and 19 October.

News reports said the players cited the March 2009 attack, when a bus carrying Sri Lankan cricketers was fired upon by gunmen near Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium. Six members of the Sri Lankan cricket team were injured in the incident, while two civilians and six security personnel were killed.

The Sri Lankan cricket board said there was a security briefing for all the players, where they were given the choice of opting out of the tour.

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