India-Pakistan tie among Cricket World Cup matches set to be rescheduled 

Former India's captain Virat Kohli, right, and his Pakistani skipper Babar Azam arrive on the field for toss before the start of the ICC men’s Twenty20 World Cup cricket match at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on October 24, 2021. (AFP/File)
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Updated 28 July 2023
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India-Pakistan tie among Cricket World Cup matches set to be rescheduled 

  • World Cup schedules are usually announced a year before the start of the event 
  • But the fixtures for the mega tournament in India were unveiled only last month 

NEW DELHI: Barely three months to go before the start of the 50-overs World Cup, the organizing Indian cricket board has said the schedule would be adjusted and an Oct. 15 India v Pakistan humdinger in Ahmedabad could be among matches affected. 

World Cup schedules are usually announced a year before the start of the event but the fixtures for the tournament in India, scheduled from Oct. 5, were unveiled only last month. 

The inordinate delay has inconvenienced fans who plan to travel to India for the tournament and Indian board secretary Jay Shah confirmed even the schedule announced last month is not final. 

“Two or three boards have written in, asking to change based on the logistical challenges,” Shah told reporters on Thursday. 

“There are some matches where there is only a two-day gap, so it will be difficult to play and then travel next day.” 

“We are working out with the ICC, and we should be able to clear it in two or three days,” he said, referring to the governing International Cricket Council. 

The organizers have not announced when and where fans can buy tickets from and an ICC spokesperson said it would be BCCI’s call. 

Media reported that the much-anticipated India v Pakistan tie would be brought forward by a day as adequate police security may not be possible on Oct. 15, which marks the beginning of a Hindu festival. 

India and Pakistan have been implacable rivals since they emerged as independent countries at the end of British colonial rule in 1947, fighting three wars since then and still rattling sabres at each other when tensions rise. 

Pakistan have said they would require government permission to travel to India for the World Cup though the ICC is hopeful of their participation. 

The bitter neighbors have played each other only in multi-team events at neutral venues over the past decade. 


Pakistani students stuck in Afghanistan permitted to go home

Updated 12 January 2026
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Pakistani students stuck in Afghanistan permitted to go home

  • The border between the countries has been shut since Oct. 12
  • Worries remain for students about return after the winter break

JALALABAD: After three months, some Pakistani university students who were stuck in Afghanistan due to deadly clashes between the neighboring countries were “permitted to go back home,” Afghan border police said Monday.

“The students from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (northwest Pakistan) who were stuck on this side of the border, only they were permitted to cross and go to their homes,” said Abdullah Farooqi, Afghan border police spokesman.

The border has “not reopened” for other people, he said.

The land border has been shut since October 12, leaving many people with no affordable option of making it home.

“I am happy with the steps the Afghan government has taken to open the road for us, so that my friends and I will be able to return to our homes” during the winter break, Anees Afridi, a Pakistani medical student in eastern Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province, told AFP.

However, worries remain for the hundreds of students about returning to Afghanistan after the break ends.

“If the road is still closed from that side (Pakistan), we will be forced to return to Afghanistan for our studies by air.”

Flights are prohibitively expensive for most, and smuggling routes also come at great risk.

Anees hopes that by the time they return for their studies “the road will be open on both sides through talks between the two governments.”