close
Thursday March 28, 2024

A BCCI offer that PCB can’t accept

The Indian cricket board is trying to line up limited-overs matches against Pakistan in India

By Khalid Hussain
November 11, 2015
KARACHI: India’s cricket chiefs are expected to make their Pakistani counterparts an offer they can’t accept.
As the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) press hard to confirm their home series against India, the Indian cricket board (BCCI) seems to have found a solution which won’t be acceptable to the PCB.
It is expected that the BCCI will ask PCB to send its team to India to play a full limited-overs series next month. By doing that it would try to compensate for not playing Pakistan’s home series in the UAE.
The Indians are eyeing a series featuring five One-day Internationals and two Twenty20 games at venues like Mohali, New Delhi and Jaipur.
Sources told ‘The News’ that BCCI will be informing the PCB that the profits from such a series, which will run into tens of millions of dollars, could be shared by the two boards.
“The Indians have decided to inform PCB that the only way a bilateral Indo-Pak series can take place next month is if Pakistan agrees to play it in India. That is because the Indian government won’t allow its team to travel to Pakistan or even the UAE to play the series,” a source said.
Another source in the PCB said that Pakistan will reject any such proposal.
“This is Pakistan’s home series and our team will not go to India to play it,” he said. “In any case, the situation in India is not conducive for our team to go there and the Board is even contemplating not sending the national side there for the Twenty20 World Cup,” he added referring to the ICC World Twenty20 to be hosted by India early next year.
Meanwhile, reports coming from across the border suggest that the BCCI is trying to line up matches against Pakistan in cities where anti-Pakistan sentiment is low.
In an interview, the BCCI chief Shashank Manohar has said that his Board will try to honour its commitment of playing against Pakistan.
“We are committed to playing Pakistan in December. However, since it’s not possible to play them in Pakistan or the UAE, we have to look at playing the series in Northern India in December,” Manohar was quoted as saying by The Hindu.
“To play against Pakistan we need to get government permission. So we need to speak to the government and abide by whatever decision the government takes.”
Manohar failed to mention the fact that his team is supposed to play a full-fledged series including Tests as agreed upon between the two boards last year on the sidelines of an International Cricket Council (ICC) annual conference in Melbourne.
Pakistan and India have not played a full bilateral series against each other since 2007, though Pakistan toured India for a short limited-overs series in 2012.
Next month’s series is one of six agreed between the PCB and BCCI under a MoU signed last year.
Meanwhile, Shaharyar Khan, the PCB chairman, has warned that time is running out.
“We did our best, now it is in their hands. But as time runs out, obviously chances of the series being held are very slim,” Shaharyar Khan was quoted as saying in a report.
“We have made it clear we want to play the series as per the MoU signed with the BCCI. The Indian board last told us they were waiting for clearance from their government which was busy in the elections. Let us see what happens now.
“”We are expecting some response from BCCI today or tomorrow after their Annual General Body Meeting,” he said.
Shaharyar stressed that an overwhelming majority of people in Pakistan and India support an Indo-Pak series.
“I know there are a lot of people even in India who want the series to happen, but we have done our part now, I would like the BCCI President Shashank Manohar to contact me himself,” he said.
Shaharyar also made it clear that if Indian government does not give the permission for the series, he does not expect his own government to give them the permission to participate in the T20 World Cup in India.
“One thing is clear, if their government does not allow them to play the series, then I don’t think our government would encourage us to go to India for any event.”