The Board of Cricket Control of India (BCCI) has rejected the England and Wales Cricket Board’s informal proposal of hosting India vs Pakistan test series in England. According to the reports, BCCI said that the chances of the India-Pakistan bilateral series in the near future are ‘next to nil’. A senior BCCI official privy to India’s position revealed:
“Firstly, ECB spoke to PCB about an Indo-Pak series and that’s a bit weird. In any case, a series against Pakistan is not something that the BCCI will decide but it is the decision of the government. As of now, the stance remains the same. We only play Pakistan at multi-team events,”
Well, it has to be noted that apart from the multi-team tournaments, India and Pakistan have not played against each other in bilateral series in any format of game since January 2013. India and Pakistan played their last Test match in December 2007.
Recently, the ECB’s deputy chairman Martin Darlow proposed the idea of hosting India vs Pakistan Test series in England to PCB chairman Ramiz Raja during his visit to Pakistan for England’s ongoing T20 international series. Analysts saw it as an ECB’s attempt to mend ties with PCB after England’s last-minute withdrawal from a scheduled two-match series in Pakistan last year. The UK daily Telegraph stated the real reason behind ECB’s proposal. The statement read:
“The matches would attract big crowds in the UK, which has a large ex-pat south Asian population,” it said. “The matches attract huge sponsorship revenue and television audiences.”
While Pakistan players have time and again expressed their desire to organize a bilateral series between India and Pakistan. However, the BCCI has rejected the proposal and is not at all interested on having a cricketing relationship with PCB owing to the relations of both countries.
