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| April 30, 2003 | Wednesday | Safar 27, 1424 |
BCCI to appeal for Pakistan games at neutral venues: Initiative lies with India: Tauqir
NEW DELHI, April 29: The Indian cricket board will ask the government to allow bilateral matches with Pakistan in neutral venues, a cricket official said on Tuesday.
“We will soon request the Prime Minister to consider allowing matches against Pakistan in neutral venues,” Rajiv Shukla, a senior member of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) told Reuters.
The Indian government banned all bilateral matches between the two sides in 2000 because of political tensions between the countries surrounding the disputed state of Kashmir.
It has not opposed meetings in multi-country events in neutral venues and the two countries played each other for the first time in almost three years at the World Cup in South Africa in March. India won by six wickets.
The government rejected a BCCI request last month to resume bilateral matches with Pakistan after the board said the team would otherwise be isolated from world cricket.
There have been signs however of a political thaw in the last few days and the Prime Ministers of the two countries spoke to each other by telephone on Monday. It was the first contact between the leaders for 18 months.
BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya is expected to discuss the issue with his Pakistan counterpart Tauqir Zia next week in Dubai during an Asian Cricket Foundation (ACF) meeting.
“We will be happy if the government allows us to play at least in neutral venues,” said BCCI secretary Karunakaran Nair. “We want to somehow resume bilateral cricket.”
Nair said senior board members would discuss the issue by the end of May.—Reuters
Our Sports Reporter adds from Islamabad: Lt. Gen Tauqir Zia said on Tuesday that he hoped cricket between Pakistan and India would resume once talks between the political leaders of both countries began.
The chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) told journalists at the KRL Stadium in Rawalpindi that the International Cricket Council (ICC) would also have to play a role in bringing the two nations on the cricketing field.
“We have done what we could, we have bent backwards as much as we could, so any initiative should now come from India.”
The cricket chiefs of both countries are due to meet on the sidelines of an Asian Cricket Foundation (ACF) meeting in Dubai on May 3.
India allows its cricket team to play Pakistan only in multilateral tournaments and not in bilateral events. The two sides last played in the World Cup in March. The Indians were due to tour Pakistan for a Test series this month but refused to cross over.
Talks between the leaders now look quite likely after Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali on Monday invited his Indian counterpart Atal Behari Vajpayee to visit Pakistan at “his convenience’ while expressing his willingness to visit that country.
Tauqir said that subcontinent’s cricket was suffering because of India’s continuing refusal to play Pakistan.
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