CHENNAI, Dec 11: Batting legend Sunil Gavaskar says it is “impossible” that India will tour Pakistan early next year due to strained political relations following the Mumbai attacks.

“It will be difficult in any case for the Indian players to play against Pakistan at the moment,” the former India captain told the CNN-IBN news channel on Thursday.

“Diplomatically, there has been a fall out between the two nations and I don’t see why cricket won’t follow suit. So at the moment it is impossible to go ahead with the tour.”

The Indian government has blamed elements in Pakistan for last month’s attacks on the country’s financial capital which left 172 dead, including nine militants, and injured more than 300.

India are scheduled to play three Tests, five One-day Internationals and a Twenty20 International during the five-week tour from Jan 6 to Feb 19.

It was to be the fifth bilateral series between the two countries since 2004, when cricket ties resumed after a 15-year gap due to political tensions between the neighbours.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is awaiting a response from the government on its request for security clearance for the tour.

The tour was first put in doubt in early November when the Indian government denied permission to the national junior hockey team to visit Pakistan.

Australia cancelled a Test tour of Pakistan in March and the International Cricket Council put off the high-profile Champions Trophy there in September due to security concerns.

Gavaskar, a Mumbai resident, said it won’t be easy to recover from the tragedy, but backed the start of the first Test against England at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium here on Thursday.

“Life has to go on,” he said. “It has been a fortnight since the Mumbai attacks took place and the mourning period is over.

“We have to plan and look ahead so that such a tragedy does not happen in future. Like all other activities cricket should also go on.

“However, it will take a long time to recover. You can’t actually recover completely from such tragedy.”

Gavaskar, the first batsman in history to score 10,000 Test runs, was until recently the chairman of the International Cricket Council’s rule-making technical committee.—AFP