LAHORE: President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) N. Srinivasan will not visit Pakistan to attend the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) meeting, being held in Pakistan later this month.

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Zaka Ashraf disclosed this here on Thursday while talking to reporters at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) where he went to meet the members of the national women’s squad.

The women cricketers were due to leave for Sri Lanka late on Thursday to compete in the World Twenty20 starting in Galle on Sept 26. The Pakistan women cricketers will play their first match in the mega event against England on Sept 27.

Zaka, who will chair the ACC meeting as its head, said Srinivasan had some other assignments and therefore he had nominated one of the vice-presidents of the BCCI to attend the meeting in Islamabad.

The ACC meeting could have provided a platform to both Pakistan and India to revive their bilateral series, which has been suspended since 2007 when Pakistan team toured India for a full series. The November 2008 Mumbai attacks incident has stalled cricket relations between the two neighbouring countries.

Several top PCB officials have been paying frequent visits to India in recent years in order to restore the bilateral series but to no avail. The PCB finally succeeded in reviving the series recently as India responded positively to host Pakistan for a limited-overs bilateral series.

Pakistan will send its national team to India in December-January for a short series featuring three ODIs and a couple of Twenty20s with a hope that India will also tour Pakistan in future.

Meanwhile, Zaka said the PCB had provided every possible facility to the national women’s team, noting legendary cricketers had been visiting their camp at the NCA to coach the players. Like the men’s team, the PCB chief hoped, the women’s team would also give their best performance in the World Twenty20.

To a question, Zaka said he had talked with the federal government to have negotiations with the Indian government on the issuance of special visas to Pakistani spectators willing to go to India to witness the ODIs and T20s between Pakistan and India.