Sports Desk:

The Pakistan Cricket Board, or PCB, has approached the International Cricket Council (ICC), for clarification after the Indian national anthem was mistakenly played for a brief moment at Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium, according to ESPNCricinfo.

Ahead of the Champions Trophy match between Australia and England, the British national anthem was played without issue. However, instead of the Australian anthem following next, a recording of the Indian national anthem began to play before being swiftly stopped and corrected.

ESPNcricinfo reports that the PCB is unhappy with the error and has placed the blame on the ICC.

A PCB official told ESPNcricinfo that since this is an ICC tournament, the anthem playlist was compiled and distributed by the governing body, which is also responsible for playing the anthems before matches.

The PCB further questioned why the Indian anthem was included in the playlist at all, given that India is not scheduled to play any matches in Pakistan.

This marks the second time in as many days that the PCB has sought an explanation from the ICC over incidents it believes have undermined Pakistan as the official host of the Champions Trophy.

During the tournament’s second game in Dubai, when India faced Bangladesh, Pakistan’s name was missing from the event logo in the official broadcast.

This was inconsistent with the graphics used in other matches, including the tournament opener between Pakistan and New Zealand in Karachi, where both the event name and ‘Pakistan’ were clearly displayed on-screen.

The ICC attributed the omission to a technical glitch, but the explanation did not satisfy the PCB. The ICC later assured that such an issue would not occur again, regardless of the match location. This means that during Sunday’s highly anticipated clash between India and Pakistan in Dubai, Pakistan’s name will appear in the official on-screen logo.