India-Pakistan may play bilateral cricket series next year: report

CHENNAI: Cricket fans in the subcontinent have reason to rejoice, as the stalemate between cricketing giants India and Pakistan may end with International Cricket Council (ICC) Chairman N Srinivasan's fresh statement that India will renew bilateral series with Pakistan next year. "There has been a proposal to resume bilateral cricket ties between India and Pakistan. As I understand as ICC chairman, there has been an agreement that the two teams will play each other soon," Srinivasan said in an interview with Times of India. The teams will take on each other in the United Arab Emirates in a full series comprising two Tests, five One Day Internationals and two T20 games. According to the Future Tours and Programmes (FTP) schedule drawn up by ICC, they will play four more full-length series over the next eight years. When the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was contacted, a source said, "We have set an eight-year plan and are working towards it." The 2015 series is a 'home' series for Pakistan, but owing to security issues, matches will have to be played in UAE. "As part of the restructuring of the FTP, India have agreed to play Pakistan in off-shore venues and as I understand, the BCCI working committee has agreed to it," Srinivasan said. Earlier, the Indian cricketing authority had opposed matches at off-shore venues, but the Indian Premier League this year in UAE was an “ice-breaker”, the report says. "The tournament was very well organised and we are happy with the arrangements in UAE," a source added. According to TOI, the last Test match between India and Pakistan was played in Bangalore in 2007. After a five-year pause due to friction between the two countries following the 26/11 attacks in 2008, Pakistan returned for a short series to India in late 2012, when they played three ODIs and two T20s. Since then, there has been no clearance from the centre for Pakistan to tour India. According to the new FTP, the first tour of Pakistan to India will be in November-December 2017, when they will play three Tests, five ODIs and two T20s. The two teams will play 12 Test matches over the next eight years. A Pakistan-India match in Delhi? An India Today report maintains that the thaw in cricketing ties between India and Pakistan is an off-shoot of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's attendance at the Indian premier Narendra Modi's oath-taking ceremony. The report states that the series could be played either in India or in the UAE. A source in the Board of Control for India (BCCI) also indicated that if the series is staged in India, one of the matches would surely be played in New Delhi. If that happens it is likely to be attended by the top politicians of the two countries — maybe even the two prime ministers. It also quotes former Pakistan opening batsman Mohsin Khan as welcoming the move to play a short series. "The demand for the India-Pakistan series has gone so high that it has left behind Ashes series between England and Australia in terms of popularity. India is one of the best teams of the world and so is Pakistan, and they should play each other, but with a gap to maintain the series' primacy," Khan told Mail Today.