Ramiz Raja, the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), made headlines last month by threatening to skip the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023, which is slated to take place in India. Ramiz was responding to BCCI Secretary Jay Shah’s statement that India wouldn’t travel to Pakistan for the 50-over Asia Cup next year and that the event might be moved to a neutral venue.

The comment incited a lot of people in Pakistan, including Ramiz, who declared that if India don’t visit Pakistan, they would also boycott the World Cup, boldly asserting that no one would watch the competition without the Men in Green. Ramiz’s case, however, is completely demolished by the most recent data from Google on trends for 2022, which reveals that Pakistan doesn’t even rank among the top 5 searches for cricket matches in India.

Here’s what Google trends suggest

According to the data, the top 5 cricket matches that Indians searched for were those in which the Men in Blue played against England, South Africa, the West Indies, Australia, and Sri Lanka. Even the much famed rivalry between India and Pakistan did not rank among the top 5. The sixth-place featured Pakistan and England, while the seventh-place contest featured India and Pakistan.

However, these trends only apply to Google searches and not to viewers tuning in to a cricket match in India or anywhere else in the world.

Image: AP