Revival of Indo-Pak cricket on PCB's agenda

Revival of Indo-Pak cricket on PCB's agenda

Lahore: Pakistan Cricket Board officials will meet their Indian counterparts next month during the ICC Chief Executives meeting to discuss the possibility of a bilateral series to compensate for a tour cancelled by India in 2009.
PCB Chief Operating Officer Subhan Ahmad said while Pakistan had to tour India next year and had no issues doing that but India must look at playing a compensatory series.
"Next month we will be in London for the ICC awards and chief executives meeting and hopefully we will take up these issues with the Indian board officials," he said.
"Yes, we are due to tour India early next year as part of the Future Tours Program but before that we feel the Indian board should compensate us with a series for that cancelled tour that cost us millions of dollars in estimated revenues.
"If we can't play in Pakistan then playing the series at neutral venues is also an option available to us but we want the Indian board to revive bilateral ties by compensating us for that cancelled tour," Ahmad said.
India was due to play three Tests, five one-dayers and a Twenty20 match on the tour of early 2009 but it got cancelled after the Mumbai attacks with the PCB claiming it had lost out on estimated earnings of about USD 30 million.
Since then, India have not played any bilateral series with Pakistan due to tense political and diplomatic ties but in recent months there has been an improvement in the relations between the two nations with the two Prime Ministers meeting during the World Cup semifinal in Mohali.
Ahmad also confirmed that the Pakistani government has no objection to playing with India and had given clearance.
"After the World Cup semifinal in Mohali both governments want to encourage bilateral cricket ties," he noted.
PCB Chairman Ijaz Butt also recently visited New Delhi for talks with broadcasters and met with ICC President Sharad Pawar asking him to also assist in the revival of Indo-Pak cricket ties.
The two boards are also facing issues with the scheduling of the FTP in March-April due to a clash of dates with a tri-series in India and the Asia Cup both due to be held in March.