Pakistan won't tour India for bilateral series until BCCI reciprocates, says PCB

If we are go by the opinions of both BCCI and PCB, the India-Pakistan rivalry faces a strong hurdle to extrapolate outside of ICC events.

DNA India reported the Pakistan Cricket Board standing firm on their stance of not giving into BCCI’s demands by refusing to tour India unless a bilateral series happens on Pakistan’s ‘home’ venues.

Najam Sethi, head of PCB’s Executive Committee categorically stated that they are ready to play their nemesis only if BCCI agrees for a full tour.

He affirmed, “We are ready to resume bilateral cricket ties with them but either in Pakistan or any other venue, not in India. We want a full ‘home’ series so that we recoup our financial losses which we have faced over the years due to India not playing us.”

On Thursday, Pakistan’s central government had given the green signal for their national team to visit India during the ICC World T20 in March.

Sethi continued, “We want regular cricket ties with India because we believe this will only help improve overall bilateral relations between the two countries.

India owes us a home series: PCB

“Our government has also constantly shown this same spirit as is evident. But, India owes us two ‘home’ series and we want them to first fulfill this obligation to us.”

The last Test series between the two nations occurred way back in 2007 when Pakistan toured India for a 3-match series. Since then, there has only been a brief limited-overs series in 2012.

However, the arch-rivals play each other in all ICC events, which suggests that there is a definite opportunity to reinvigorate bilateral ties.

Sethi who was the brain behind the recently completed Pakistan Super League claimed that his country was prepared to host India in places like Lahore or Karachi with complete security assurances.

But, he still remained wary of the security situation in Pakistan.

The 68-year old confirmed, “We ourselves are being patient on hosting international teams and not pushing anyone as our Prime Minister wants us to be cautious. Any small incident would put our cricket back by 10 years.

“But we want to have the opening match and final of the second edition of the PSL in Pakistan for sure.”

India and Pakistan are scheduled to play each other in the Asia Cup today as well as in the World T20.