There can be no commercially successful global cricket tournament, anywhere in the world, without the Indian team. Viewership, sponsorship revenue and overall interest in the tournament would nose-dive if India is not playing. The only reason India are playing all their matches in Dubai is because there is absolutely no chance whatsoever that the team would have been given the go-ahead to travel to Pakistan, for anything. It takes a lot to get a venue ready for international matches of this scale. If this scenario had been pre-empted, many things could have been different. But it wasn’t. And there were no voices of criticism at that time. They only began to dominate proceedings in Dubai. There’s no fact that all other teams, barring India, might be feeling shortchanged. The Indian team knew they were going to be based and only in Dubai and could also select their squad accordingly. All of us who were scratching our heads as many as five spinners were picked now understand it was a tactical masterstroke. The BCCI had to relay the official stance, which is that Indian players and Pakistan can’t travel to each other. At the end of the day, this is not Team India or the current BCCI’s fault.
