Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Shahryar Khan on Monday said the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is awaiting the approval of ‘recently’ elected government of PM Narendra Modi to hold the bilateral series.
Speaking to media representatives here, Khan said the BCCI was ready to honour the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the two boards. However, they were waiting for the approval of their ‘newly elected government’, he added.
The PCB chairman termed the legal dispute between India’s cricketing body and Ten Sports another hurdle in the way of holding the home series in Pakistan.
However, the International Cricket Council (ICC) was striving to resolve the dispute between the two parties, he added.
“Once this issue is resolved, and we hope it will in coming weeks, then political environment between India and Pakistan will decide the fate of cricketing ties of the two neighbours,” said the PCB chief.
“We are cricket board, we obviously can’t interfere in government affairs but we want to see a green light from the Indian government soon.”
Commenting over revival of international cricket in Pakistan, Shahryar Khan said over all security situation of the country was getting better with the passage of each day and hoped that things would be much better in the next six months.
He said most of the teams prefer playing in Lahore and consider visiting Karachi a security risk. “We have given detailed briefings about security arrangements in Karachi and Hong Kong has shown interest in playing in Karachi,” he added.
Oman is another country that is willing to visit Pakistan soon, he said. The issue of foreign teams’ visits to the country would shape up in the coming two weeks, he added.
“We won’t pressurize full-member teams to visit Pakistan following a successful Zimbabwe tour… However, there are indications that some Test sides like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are considering it.”
The PCB chairman also talked about ineffectiveness of a task force formed by the ICC for the revival of international cricket in Pakistan. He said in his recently concluded visit to the United Kingdom, he spoke with Giles Clark, the chairman of the task force, who he said has assured him about bringing an international team to Pakistan.
“He [Clark] said the team will play at three venues including Karachi and Lahore and any other place proposed by the PCB.”
Commenting on the Pakistan Super League (PSL), Shahryar Khan said that holding the first season of T20 tournament at home would not be feasible as big names of the game were still reluctant in visiting the country.
The PCB chief said that launching the tournament in the UAE or Qatar was the best available option at the moment.