Pakistani Presenter Zainab Abbas Left India Herself, Not Deported: ICC

Zainab Abbas, a Pakistani sports presenter and commentator, had left India due to a “personal reason” and was not deported, an ICC spokesperson said on Monday.

Abbas was in India as part of the ICC’s list of presenters for the ongoing Cricket World Cup 2023.

“She has left for a personal reason and was not deported,” ICC spokesperson C. Rajshekhar Rao told Arab News via phone. 

He declined to elaborate on the reason for her departure and did not specify if she had arrived back in Pakistan.

The Pakistan Cricket Board declined to comment on the issue.

India media meanwhile widely reported that Abbas’s past social media tweets, including one in 2014 in which she said New Delhi smelled like “cow piss,” had come under scrutiny since the tournament began on Oct. 5. 

Pakistani fans and journalists are still waiting for visas to travel to India for the World Cup, which started last week. Visas for the Pakistan team were granted barely 48 hours before they left for what is their first tour of India since the T20 World Cup in 2016.

Cricket has been a victim of a soured political relationship between the neighbors and bitter rivals, who play each other only in multi-team events like the World Cup.