Pakistan won't play in India until BCCI agrees to a home series: PCB

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Wednesday got the clearance from their government to participate in the World T20 in India.

PCB’s Executive committee headed by Najam Sethi made it clear that Pakistan won’t play any bilateral series with India until The Board of Control for Cricket India (BCCI) agrees to play a “home” series.

According to the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by the two cricketing boards, India and Pakistan are due to play six bilateral series between the years 2015 to 2023.

Talking to the reporters in United Arab Emirate, after the success of Pakistan Super League (PSL), Sethi said, “We are ready to resume bilateral cricket 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,”

Highlighting the issues faced by the PCB, he added, “We want regular cricket ties with India because we believe this will only help improve overall bilateral relations between the two countries.”

“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,”

India has not played Pakistan’s home series since 2007 after the Mumbai terror attacks.

Sethi was even upset about not sharing the revenue of the previous series, he said, “They will have to fulfil what they owe us this year or the next (before we can tour India). They owe us four home series, and Pakistan gets to host the first one. It was supposed to happen in December but [it didn’t]. Eventually, they have to fulfill their obligation before we will go there. They either have to play us in the UAE, or Sri Lanka or wherever we can mutually agree on. They have to keep their contractual obligation,”

“They had snubbed us in 2009, and when we went to India to play a bilateral (limited-overs) series in return in 2012, they didn’t even share the revenue. Now according to the current MoU I made them sign, Pakistan gets four home series, two for them and they agreed. Despite that, they have held our 2015 series and postponed it for next available window but this time they have to play before getting to host us in 2017,” he added.

Concerted efforts by the PCB to revive bilateral ties with India last December also failed after the BCCI said it had not got government clearance to play a bilateral series.

Sethi wants to take it slow while Pakistan was in a position to host India in Karachi or Lahore as the provincial governments and security forces had promised full security for international matches, but they would have to be cautious.

“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,” Sethi concluded.