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karachi, may 23
The PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan has expressed disappointment over the Indian cricket Board’s lukewarm response to the issue of resumption of the bilateral ties between the two countries.
Shaharyar was hopeful that there would be a revival of bilateral ties after his visit to India recently, but not-so-positive statements from senior BCCI officials have not gone down too well with the PCB chief.
“We visited India in 1999 even after Shiv Sena dug the pitch for the match because we don’t believe in mixing sports with politics,” Shaharyar said.
“Cricket needs to be played in the right spirit,” he added.
One particular statement from a senior BCCI official, Rajeev Shukla, seems to have irked Shaharyar, who had returned a few days back from India, proclaiming it as a positive visit.
Shukla had said that there was no immediate chance of bilateral ties being restored and the Pakistan Cricket Board would have to meet certain conditions before anything was finalised, as the Indians were not keen on playing at a neutral venue.
The PCB, in contrast, has already planned the first Test bilateral series with India in the UAE this December.
Shaharyar insisted that fans of both the countries love watching Indo-Pak matches but politics is ruining it. “People of both the countries don’t hate each other. It is the politics which is ruining the cricketing ties.” Shaharyar said while a series against India would be financially beneficial for the PCB, the main aim was to revive Indo-Pak cricketing ties. “It (Pak-India series) will be very viable financially for PCB but more importantly our cricket will benefit from it. Even the ICC understands the importance of the series," he insisted.
Meanwhile, talking about the central contracts of the players for the year 2015, Shaharyar said only one point needed to be cleared between the board and cricketers.
“The captain and the players have an issue with the bonus system where they were granted bonuses of match victories.” — PTI
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