The PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan has expressed disappointment over Indian Cricket Board’s lukewarm response to the resumption of the bilateral ties between the two countries.
Shaharyar was hopeful that there would be a revival of bilateral ties after his visit to India recently, but not-so-positive statements from senior BCCI officials have not gone down too well with the PCB chief.
“We visited India in 1999 even after Shiv Sena dug the pitch for the match because we don’t believe in mixing sports with politic,” Shaharyar told a news channel. “Cricket needs to be played in the right spirit,” he added.
One particular statement from a senior BCCI official, Rajeev Shukla seems to have irked Shaharyar, who had returned few days back from India, proclaiming it as a positive visit.
Shukla had said that there was no immediate chance of bilateral ties being restored and the Pakistan Cricket Board would have to meet certain conditions before anything was finalised, as the Indians were not keen on playing at a neutral venue.
The PCB, in contrast, has already planned the first Test bilateral series with India in the UAE this December.
Shaharyar insisted that fans of both the countries love watching Indo-Pak matches but politics is ruining it.
Shaharyar said while a series against India would be financially beneficial for the PCB, but the main aim was to revive Indo-Pak cricketing ties.
“It (Pak-India series) will be very viable financially for PCB. But more importantly our cricket will benefit from it. Even the ICC understands the importance of the series,” he insisted.
PCB Employee on the dock for 600 stolen tickets
PCB has filed a formal FIR against an office employee after nearly 600 tickets for the Pakistan and Zimbabwe series were stolen from the board office.
An official of the board said that they were suspicious about the involvement of an employee in the theft and after he refused to confess to the board officials, they were forced to file a police report against him.
“The tickets are of the highest price denomination at 1500 rupees per ticket but more than the money we are concerned from a security point of view.”
According to the official, the noteworthy part was that there no complimentary tickets given to anyone and everyone had to purchase a ticket.