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| March 11, 2003 | Tuesday | Muharram 7, 1424 |
India unlikely to tour Pakistan
JOHANNESBURG, March 10: India will take on South Africa and Bangladesh in a limited-overs tri-series in Dhaka in mid-April, a senior Indian official said on Monday.
The exact dates have not been finalised, Indian cricket board secretary Karunakaran Nair said, but the proposed series confirms fears that India will not undertake a Test tour of Pakistan after the World Cup.
“We are working out the dates for the Dhaka matches with the South African and Bangladesh boards,” Nair said.
South Africa, who were knocked out in the first round of the World Cup, will travel to Dhaka after playing another tri-series against Pakistan and Sri Lanka in Sharjah, from April 1-10.
Indian cricket officials had last week urged the federal government to allow the April tour of Pakistan to go ahead to prevent India from being “totally isolated” on the world stage.
“If India do not play against Pakistan, the equilibrium of world cricket will be severely affected because the World Test Championship cannot be decided,” Indian chief Jagmohan Dalmiya wrote in a letter to Sports Minister Vikram Verma.
Dalmiya said each cricket nation was supposed to play four series against each other every 10 years and that if India did not play Pakistan it “may be totally isolated in the world cricket scenario.”
The Indian government has banned bilateral cricket ties against Pakistan in protest at Islamabad’s alleged support for the rebels in divided Kashmir.
Pakistan, which denies the allegations, has urged India to undertake the tour even as both teams play one another in multi-nation events like the World Cup.
India defeated Pakistan by six wickets at Centurion on March 1 in the preliminary round, a match that passed off without incident.
India last played a Test series in Pakistan in 1989-90. Pakistan toured India in 1999-2000 for three Test matches despite threats from Hindu fundamentalists to disrupt the tour.
Most of the tour was incident-free except in Kolkata when police vacated 70,000 fans from the Eden Gardens who turned violent in protest at India’s poor performance.
Pakistan, led by Wasim Akram, later won the match in front of empty stands.—AFP
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