Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Shahryar Khan has held a fruitful discussion with his counterpart Anurag Thakur at the Board of Control for Cricket in India, (BCCI) including the possibility of resuming bilateral ties at neutral venues.
According to a reliable source in the PCB, Khan met with BCCI president Thakur on the sidelines of the ICC meetings in Edinburgh this week and raised the issue of resuming bilateral ties.
“A proposal has been floated that it is about time that the two boards worked out a proper calendar for bilateral series at neutral venues,” the source said.
He said the proposal was that the two countries should play a full bilateral series every two years.
“The PCB chief said Pakistan would be willing to play in India when it was the turn of the BCCI to host the series. While when it was Pakistan’s turn to host the series it would be held at a neutral venue finalised by consensus,” the source added.
The source said both the board heads had agreed that they needed to talk to their governments to get clearance for a full bilateral series sometime in late 2016 or 2017.
“Shahryar made it clear that Pakistan had suffered loss of revenues in millions because of India’s refusal to play a proper bilateral series since 2007 and it was time the two boards reached a proper agreement on this with the involvement of the ICC,” he said.
Although Pakistan toured India for a short one-day series in December 2012 there has been no full series since Pakistan last toured India in 2007.
The PCB had tried to push the BCCI to honour a MOU signed between the two boards in 2014 when Najam Sethi was heading the PCB under which Pakistan was to host India for a bilateral series in the UAE in late 2015 but the BCCI said it couldn’t play without clearance from its government.
The source said when Shahryar Khan moved the proposal in the ICC board meeting for a special fund to be set-up to compensate for international teams not touring the country since 2009 he spoke in detail about the losses also suffered by Pakistan due to India’s refusal to honour the MOU.
Under the MOU the two countries are to play six bilateral series from 2015 to 2023.
The source said Khan also discussed the plans to have a mini IPL in the UAE by the Indian board and hoped it would not clash directly with any home series of Pakistan or the Pakistan Super League.
