BCCI has officially invited Pakistan to play series in December: Shahryar Khan

Looks like the India Pakistan series has got the green signal from administrators

After months of speculation and meetings between both cricket boards, BCCI has finally invited Pakistan for their ‘home’ series in December. PCB Chairman Shahryar Khan confirmed that his BCCI counter-part Shashank Manohar officially conveyed him the news on Friday.

He told the Pakistani media, during a press conference, "Shashank Manohar called me up on Friday evening and told me they have got clearance from their government to play against us. But he said they wanted to play the series in India and not in the UAE.”

Khan added, “Manohar also said that the Indian board would provide the best security to our team and schedule the matches in places like Mohali and Kolkata where there is no problem at playing a Indo-Pak match. Thirdly he said that the Indian board would devise a formula to ensure that we don't suffer any loss of revenues for playing our home series in India," he said.

Earlier this month, Khan informed Manohar, that cancellation of the series would be defying the terms mentioned in the MoU signed last year. Khan also stated that he would ideally like to play in UAE, rather than in India. He said, "Why should we play our home series in India and not in UAE which is stated in the MOU and there is the matter of security for our team and plus the nearly $50 million that we expect to earn from hosting the series,”

Khan also said that he cannot be the sole authority while taking a call on Manohar’s offer. He will be consulting members of the government, to acquire the pre-requisite permissions for the series to go through. He said, "But more importantly I have to first also seek clearance from the Prime Minister for any decision we take. At the moment I have told the Indian cricket chief to send us a detailed proposal in writing.”

However, several members within the PCB hierarchy have expressed their concerns regarding the offer. PCB executive committee member, Najam Sethi said, "In my personal opinion we should not go to India as it is our home series and the BCCI should honor the MOU they signed with us which states Pakistan will host this series.”

As per the MoU, India and Pakistan will face each other in six series between 2015 and 2022.