Chances of Pakistan-India series look bleak, says Shahryar

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Shahryar Khan is pessimistic about revival of cricketing ties between Pakistan and India saying chances of a bilateral series look bleak for now.

“Given the present circumstance, the chances of a Pakistan-India series look bleak and we have to live with the fact that India are not going to play us,” he said in an interview to ESPNcricinfo.

“At the same time the BCCI hasn’t formally refused us, but we can’t wait long amid this uncertainty and have got to have an alternative plan. We will wait for another couple of months before forcing our plan B.

“I hope the climate will improve but at the moment it’s more a political tension…the relationship between the countries is complex but cricket shouldn't be suffering, it is after all something that can be a tool to lower the tension.”

The pessimistic sounding PCB chief went as far as saying that Pakistan cricket could “survive without India.”

“It's not that we can’t survive without playing them. We are surviving, and can survive, but our position is that the game shouldn’t be mixed up with the politics. So we are trying to get the series revived based on the MOU they have signed with us. They have to honour it and if they don’t it’s their responsibility,” said Khan.

India halted bilateral sports with Pakistan in the wake of terrorist attacks on Mumbai in 2008, which New Delhi blamed on militants based across the border, a claim Pakistan strongly denies.

But last year both countries’ cricket boards signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) under which they were due to play six series in 2015-2023, conditional to the Indian government’s clearance.

Cricket series between Pakistan and India were keenly followed both at home and abroad and regarded as on a par with – if not bigger than – the historic Ashes series between England and Australia.

But cricket has often been affected by political tensions, with no series between India and Pakistan from 1961-1978 and then 1989-1999.