Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Shaharyar Khan has said that he is not hopeful about having a bilateral series against India in the near future, considering the current political turmoil between the two nations.
“Given the present circumstances, the chances of a Pakistan-India [cricket] series look bleak and we have to live with the fact that India are not going to play us,” a prominent cricket website quoted Shaharyar as saying.
“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.
Shaharyar stressed that cricket should not suffer because of politics.
“I hope the climate [in Pakistan-India relations] 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 PCB chief stated.
Acknowledging that he understood how big the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was and the perks of playing India, he, however, firmly made a point that Pakistan cricket was not dependent upon the BCCI and could survive without playing India.
“We understand the BCCI is financially very sound and we are the ones who have suffered a lot in all this. 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,” the PCB chief maintained.
Recently, BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur gave a statement that any bilateral series between India and Pakistan was unlikely until the political relationship between the two countries stabilises.
He spoke after the terror strike in Punjab’s Gurdaspur District.
India and Pakistan played a full-fledged Test and ODI series last time in 2007-08 in India.
