BCCI confident Pakistan tour will be approved
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) are confident they will secure the government’s clearance to host Pakistan for a short tour later this year. The BCCI invited Pakistan to play three ODI and two Twenty20 matches in December-January – the first bilateral contests between the arch-rivals in five years.
“We will of course need to take a formal clearance from the government,” said Rajiv Shukla, the BCCI spokesman. “But I have spoken to both the home ministry and the external affairs ministry and we have no doubt the tour will take place.”
Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Indian captain, speaking to reporters in Chennai on Tuesday ahead of a tour of Sri Lanka, starting this week, said his team will be ready to face Pakistan. ”Now that the series has been announced, we will be ready for it,” he said. “As professional cricketers that is what we are supposed to do. The country’s name is at stake. We will try and win every game, especially if it is against Pakistan.”
India and Pakistan have not played a series since the tour of India in 2007. Cricket ties were snapped following the 2008 terror attacks on Mumbai, carried out by militants from Pakistan.
Shukla revealed that the BCCI was not interested in hosting Pakistan at a neutral venue and so slotted in the matches when England, also due to tour India later this year, return home briefly for Christmas and New Year.
Cricket ties have been the subject of discussions between the governments of both countries, who have been holding regular meetings in a bid to improve ties and eventually settle a peace agreement.
The teams have only met in multi-team tournaments since 2007. India won the most recent games, a semifinal encounter in the 2011 World Cup and at the Asia Cup in Bangladesh in March earlier this year.
PCN Staff Editor
