Former England captain Michael Atherton believes that fixtures at ICC events should no longer be “arranged” to ensure that India and Pakistan meet at every tournament following the animosity and controversy between the two teams in last month’s Asia Cup.

Atherton has called on the ICC to increase transparency in its tournament draw system, suggesting a reduction in India-Pakistan matches.

“Despite its scarcity (maybe, in part, because of its scarcity) it is a fixture that carries huge economic clout, one of the main reasons why the broadcast rights for ICC tournaments are worth so much — roughly $3 billion for the most recent rights cycle 2023-27,” Atherton wrote in The Times, London.

“Due to the relative decline in the value of bilateral matches, ICC events have grown in frequency and importance, and so the India and Pakistan fixture is crucial to the balance sheets of those who would not otherwise have any skin in the game.”

He said that after the “antics” at the Asia Cup, it is time to put an end to this “tacitly supported arrangement.”

“If cricket was once the vehicle for diplomacy, it is now, clearly, a proxy for broader tensions and for propaganda. There is little justification, in any case, for a serious sport to arrange tournament fixtures to suit its economic needs and now that the rivalry is being exploited in other ways, there is even less justification for it. For the next broadcast rights cycle, the fixture draw before ICC events should be transparent and if the two teams do not meet every time, so be it,” Atherton said.

“This ‘arrangement’ has been tacitly supported within the game for a number of reasons. The most obvious is the inability of both teams, because of political tensions, to meet outside ICC events. The countries have not played a Test against each other since 2007, since before the Mumbai terrorist attacks, and they have not played a bilateral white-ball series against each other since 2013.”

Atherton has cited how the draws have been arranged to facilitate such big-ticket matches.

“India and Pakistan have played each other in the group stage of every ICC event since 2013, which includes three 50-over World Cups, five T20 World Cups and three Champions Trophy. That is regardless of whether the initial stage has been a single round robin — part of the motivation for which is the inevitability of an India versus Pakistan fixture — or multi-group, when the draws have been neatly arranged to ensure the fixture goes ahead.

“Cricket on each other’s territory was once the avenue through which both countries might talk, but gradually silence has descended. ICC events are the only occasions, at present, when the fixture can go ahead and now this must be on neutral territory too — the cause of much debate in the most recent Champions Trophy, when India parked themselves in Dubai for an entire tournament nominally hosted by Pakistan.”