"Value Of A Human Life...": Ex-India Star's Blunt Take On Asia Cup 2025 Match vs Pakistan

The Asia Cup 2025 will kick off on September 9 in the United Arab Emirates. Team India will open its campaign on September 10 against the hosts, UAE, in Dubai. The highly anticipated and most controversial clash between India and Pakistan is scheduled for September 14. Following the Pahalgam terror attack in April of this year, where innocent Indian tourists lost their lives, there have been calls to boycott the match against Pakistan. Earlier, there were chances that the Asia Cup might be canceled due to tensions between India and Pakistan, but the continental tournament was approved by the Asian Cricket Council.

India's sports ministry also clarified that the match against Pakistan at the Asia Cup will be played without any hindrance, but a bilateral series between the two teams will remain suspended.

Reacting to the sports ministry's statement, former India cricketer Manoj Tiwary expressed his disappointment, stating that the "value of human life is zero."

"I am a little surprised that this match is going to happen... After the Pahalgam attack, in which so many innocent civilians were killed, and then the war that followed, a lot of talk was going on that this time we will give a befitting reply," Tiwary told ANI.

"Despite this, after a few months, everything has been forgotten... I find it hard to believe that this match is happening, that the value of a human life can be zero. What do they want to achieve by playing with Pakistan?... The value of a human life should be more than sports... There is no question of me watching the match at all..." he added.

Team India for the Asia Cup 2025 was unveiled on Tuesday, with skipper Suryakumar Yadav leading the squad and Shubman Gill as his deputy. Several major names were missing from the squad.

Expressing his views on the exclusion of Iyer and Jaiswal, Tiwary said, "Two deserving candidates, Shreyas Iyer and Yashasvi Jaiswal, have not been able to make it to the team... If you see old videos of Gautam Gambhir, he had said that Yashasvi Jaiswal is such a player that we cannot think of keeping him out of T20s."

"Now that he himself is the coach, there is no place for Shreyas Iyer in the team. Shreyas Iyer's performance is the best if you look at the last year... It's eye-opening that he didn't get a place in the T20... The selection process should be made live so that sports lovers know who has been selected and why," he added.

(With ANI Inputs)

Topics mentioned in this article

India Cricket Team Pakistan Cricket Team Suryakumar Yadav Manoj Tiwary Asia Cup 2025 Cricket