Javed Miandad slams India for delaying the clearance for India-Pakistan series

Miandad won the World Cup with Pakistan in 1992

Former Pakistan skipper Javed Miandad has lashed out at India for not making a call on the bilateral series between both the countries in Sri Lanka, which was scheduled to start on December 15.

During an interview, Miandad said that India “could not be trusted”. He also advised the Pakistan Cricket Board not to dream of holding a series with arch-rivals India in a neutral venue and expressed his disappointment over the way BCCI has handled the issue with the Indian government, which is yet to give a clearance for the series to go ahead.

"What kind of attitude has been adopted by India? It is always India that has created problems for cricketing ties between the two countries," Miandad said.

Miandad said the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) officials have “always tried to let down Pakistan”.

“Despite their commitment, the PCB officials tried their best to settle the matter with mutual understanding. Both the PCB and the Sri Lanka Cricket (board) must first get India's consent in black and white and if they back out of the agreement, then they should be penalised,” Miandad added.

According to the ICC’s Future Tour Program, India and Pakistan were scheduled to play a full series in UAE, but the BCCI backed out as they wanted Pakistan to play a home series in India and also assured that they will make sure that the PCB is profitable in it. The PCB were reluctant to accept to BCCI’s terms and wanted the men in Blue to play in UAE. There were no hopes on the series to go ahead this year.

Last week PCB President Shahryar Khan and his BCCI counterpart Shashank Manohar met each other in a meeting mediated by the ECB president Giles Clarke in Dubai. After the meeting, both the boards agreed to have a series in Sri Lanka as the venue for December series subject to a clearance from both the governments.

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif cleared the series to go ahead whereas there is no word from the Government of India yet.

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) gave their approval for the series to go ahead and fixed R Premadasa Stadium and Pallekalle International stadium as the venues for the three ODIs and two T20 matches between the two Asian giants that are scheduled to begin on December 15.

The Indian government seems reluctant to renew the cricketing ties with Pakistan by delaying their response, but the BCCI is still hopeful of getting the nod. With just over two weeks to go, the fate of the cricketing ties lies on the hands of the Indian government.