India holding back progress on bilateral series: Shahryar Khan

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Shahryar Khan has blamed the Indian government for not doing enough to resume the cricketing ties between the arch-rivals. The PCB head feels that India is holding back the progress of Indo-Pak cricketing ties.

In an interview to PakPassion.net, the PCB chief said that they had signed the agreement in which the board had agreed to the idea of the Big Three’s influence on world cricket in 2014 with the clear understanding that India would play six series with them over a period of eight years.

“These series would have been played in India or a mutually agreed venue in a third country. These would have been very lucrative series as the India-Pakistan encounters attract a lot more international attention and financing compared to other series, even more than the Ashes,” Khan said.

“The BCCI told us that they needed permission from the Indian government for these series and we agreed to wait for that but that permission never came through. As a result, this series went down the drain with huge financial implications for us. It also showed that India had not met our conditions for accepting the Big Three formula. The current situation is as I just described, as in we are awaiting permission from the Indian government to play this series,” he added.

Also read – Upul Tharanga keen on making an impact

“Pakistan government has never created any hurdles to this series and even at the time of the ICC World Twenty20 when all sorts of threats were being made, Pakistan team still participated in the tournament. It is the Indian government which is holding back progress on this series,”Pakpassion.net quoted him as saying.

Last month the Pakistan government had restrained PCB from initiating any dialogue with the BCCI on the issue of bilateral cricket series, which has been discontinued repeatedly due to the volatile political ties between the two nations.

Also read – Anil Kumble to begin coaching stint at NCA with Indian team

India have not played Pakistan’s home series since 2007 and PCB’s efforts to revive bilateral ties with India last December failed after the Indian board made it clear that they don’t have their government’s clearance to play a bilateral series.

India vs Pakistan is regarded as one of the biggest rivalry in cricket and both countries have a big fan-following for the game. The World Twenty20 encounter between the neighbours at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata saw 22 million interactions on Facebook.