LAHORE, March 12: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and Indian Punjab Cricket Association (IPCA) have decided to play a bilateral series at the Punjab-level this year. Dawn

PCB chairman Ijaz Butt, while exclusively talking to , disclosed that the negotiations between PCB and IPCA had successfully been ended in the recent past and in the first phase an Indian Punjab team would visit Pakistan in June this year to play two one-day and as many T20 matches in different cities of Punjab.

In September, Pakistan Punjab team would visit Indian Punjab to play same number of one-day and T20 matches.

He said the IPCA proposed the series to the PCB and further details were being finalised between the two.

He said the PCB would likely to hold matches in Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan and Rawalpindi under floodlights, since the weather would be hot in June.

The IPCA would hold the matches in Amritsar, Chandigarh, Jalandhar and Ludhiana, he said.

The PCB chairman further said that the governments of both the countries had given green signal for this series and hopefully it would pave the way to restore cricketing ties between the two countries.

He said the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had also allowed its affiliated unit IPCA to go ahead with the series.

He said a detailed itinerary of the programme was being finalised and it would be announced soon.

The cricketing ties between the two countries remained disturbed in the past due to political tensions.

Last time, Pakistan visited India in 2007, while in return the later were to visit Pakistan from Jan 13 to Feb 19, 2009. But the Indian government did not allow its team to go to Pakistan in the backdrop of the Mumbai attack in November, 2008.

To replace India, the PCB had invited Sri Lanka but terrorists attacked the visiting team in Lahore on March 3, 2009, which had caused a big disaster to the country's sports, since the international sports activities in Pakistan have been reduced remarkably.

The PCB suffered huge financial losses after India refused to visit the country in 2009. According to a report, the suspension of the Indian team's tour to Pakistan had caused the PCB loss of Rs2 billion.

Meanwhile, Ijaz But said the Punjab government had also given its consent and ensured all security arrangements to conduct the series smoothly.