LAHORE – The Pakistan Cricket Board’s plans of arranging a series with India suffered a blow as India’s foreign secretary Nirupama Rao said Wednesday that no decision was made on “resumption” of cricket ties with Pakistan. Rao said on her Twitter account: “Hv (have) been asked abt (about) resumption of cricket ties with Pak. Want to clarify no such decision, although sporting contacts may be encouraged.” Replying to a question on twitter, Rao said, “Sporting contacts btw (between) India and Pakistan, bar (barring) cricket, have been taking place. This can be encouraged further. Hope I am clear.”
During their informal talks on the sidelines of Indo- Pak cricket World Cup semi-final in Mohali on March 30, Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan had expressed desire to have normalisation of bilateral cricketing ties. “Cricket has become a uniting factor and I think one thing which we can agree is that the sporting links between our two countries should be normalised as early as possible,” Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said in his opening remarks at the dinner he hosted for his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani.
This was followed by a flurry of reports from Pakistan on a possible tour by the Indian cricket team early next year. Also, Indian media claimed that their government will not have any problem if the team wished to tour Pakistan.
