LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), in a letter to its Indian counterpart, while expressing regret over the BCCI attitude in hosting a PCB delegation in Mumbai, seeks a rescheduled meeting between the two boards to decide whether or not India is ready to play a bilateral series in the UAE in Dece­mber.

PCB chairman Shaharyar M. Khan returned home on Wednesday from Mumbai, where he had gone with a three-member PCB delegation to discuss with BCCI president Shashank Manohar to take a final decision whether India was ready to play the series as per the MoU signed last year.

However, extremists of Shiv Sena party sabotaged the scheduled meeting at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai when around 40 to 50 individuals stormed the venue of the meeting prior to its start.

As a result, the BCCI cancelled the meeting but it failed to contact the PCB delegation to take it into confidence about the next step, as PCB chairman kept waiting for one whole day, hoping a rescheduled meeting will be convened.

It may be mentioned here that BCCI president Manohar had invited Shaharyar for the said meeting, but after the undesirable developments in Mumbai leading to the cancellation of the meeting, the former did not make any contact with the latter to apprise him of the next programme.

On Wednesday, Shaharyar reached the Gaddafi Stadium, direct from Lahore Airport to address a crowded press conference during which he expressed his regret over the BCCI attitude, alleging it had missed the basic ethics of hospitality.

Interestingly, at the same time, the PCB chief kept the door open for further dialogue over the series, which most probably may be held after the ongoing ODI series between India and South Africa ends in Mumbai on Oct 25.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2015

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