No official request from PCB for bilateral series: Thakur

Sabi Hussain

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 19

There might be efforts to resume bilateral cricketing ties between India and Pakistan, but the BCCI has clarified that it has received no formal request from the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to play a full-fledged series in December this year.

BCCI’s newly-elected secretary Anurag Thakur informed that no modalities have been worked out between the two Boards to play a series comprising of two Tests, five ODIs and two T20s later this year either in India or the UAE.

“As of now, there has been no moment (in talks). There is no official request from the PCB (to play a series). We will look into the issue once we receive the request from the PCB,” Thakur told The Tribune. There had been speculations that India and Pakistan would play a bilateral series after PCB chief Shaharyar Khan met Thakur on a courtesy visit to the capital on March 10 to wish the latter on his appointment as the BCCI secretary.

It was believed that both discussed resuming cricketing ties and the PCB chief even sought clearance for the series during his meeting with the Indian government officials.

A day before, Pakistan High Commissioner to India, Abdul Basit, during his visit to Kolkata, had stated that both the countries will play a bilateral series in December. “We are working very hard on that. The modalities are being worked out and the venue could either be India or the UAE. It will be happening after a long gap,” Basit had said.

However, Thakur’s statement has put to rest any hope of watching the two countries in action in a near future as all the series will be subject to Indian government’s clearance. Thakur informed that the issue will be discussed in the BCCI’s next Working Committee Meeting. “We may discuss it. It depends,” he said. Thakur, however, admitted that the issue did crop up during his talks with the PCB chief.

“It was a courtsey visit and while having that ‘chai par charcha’, we discussed about resuming the Indo-Pak cricket. He raised the issue with me and I think as a PCB chief, he has all the rights to bring up the issue. But nothing was finalised,” he said. Thakur also informed that the BCCI will not allow the after-match parties in IPL.