Zee Media boycott India-Pakistan match: Know the reason behind

Any India-Pakistan match is always a matter of pride for both the countries. On the 4 June the two arch-rivals met in Birmingham for their first match in the league stage of the Champions Trophy. This match held a huge prospect of marketing with a viewership of over 10 million. However, Essel group chairman and Rajya Sabha MP, Subhash Chandra declared in a series of tweets that no channels associated with Zee Media will cover the match.

He had further declared that the reason behind this boycott is to support the armed forces. “None of the portals, apps, newspaper, and news channels will report about the match in support of our armed forces,” said Chandra, “Rather we will show the stories of actual heroes who will be fighting for us even when our cricket team will be playing with enemy. Let’s tell our Army that the people for whom they risk their life are more interested in supporting them than cheering for cricket match. We can’t be selective in our patriotism where at one end we outrage over Pak actors in our movies and at other hand we play cricket.”

Sudhir Chaudhary, editor in chief of the Zee News channel responded to the post by asking their viewers to support the campaign in the following tweet.

There have been declarations earlier by the sports ministry for no bilateral series between India and Pakistan till there is a stop to cross-border terror attacks. However, the board does not have a say if the two sides meet in a multilateral international tournament like the Champions Trophy. This decision by the ministry had earlier resulted in a legal notice being sent from the Pakistan Board to the BCCI over an MOU they signed for six bilateral series between 2015 and 2023. This caused the PCB an alleged loss of $60 million.

In the recent years, Pakistani athletes for different sports have also been facing difficulties in generating visas for international tournaments taking place in India. This step by the Essel group was a cherry on top of the cake for the revolt against India-Pakistan sporting ties.