LAHORE: Keeping in view the major aim of reviving international competitions at home in the near future, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has withdrawn almost all its demands from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), also making national team’s forthcoming tour to India possible.

The Pakistan team is scheduled to leave for India on Dec 22 to play three One-day Internationals and two Twenty20 matches there in a bilateral series between the arch-rivals after a gap of five years.

Well-informed sources told Dawn that the PCB believes that not-so-good relationship between Pakistan board and the BCCI was also hindering resumption of international cricket in Pakistan, suspended for more than three-and-a-half years.

Last April, though an internal tussle between the PCB and the Punjab government over security-related matters indirectly played a negative role in the cancellation of Bangladesh team’s tour to Pakistan, sources said the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) also faced pressure from the BCCI not to send its team to Pakistan.

Eventually, the tour was deferred following an intervention by the Bangladesh court.

All this has compelled the PCB to readjust its strategy, preventing it not to dictate terms to the BCCI for Pakistan’s coming tour to India.

The BCCI is expected to earn around $80 million from this series. However, the Indian board is not willing to share even a penny from this revenue with the PCB.

Moreover, the BCCI has not assured that its national team will undertake a return tour to Pakistan in the near future, despite repeated requests from the PCB in this regard.

Sources further disclosed that the PCB currently is in negotiations with the Zimbabwe and Bangladesh cricket boards and soon after the tour of India, it hopes both the countries will send their teams to Pakistan for international matches.

Furthermore, the PCB also intends to hold its premier league in March next year and if both Zimbabwe and Bangladesh squads complete their expected tours to Pakistan safely, top-class players from across the cricketing world may be attracted to feature in the league.

It may be mentioned here that first the PCB wanted to host India in Pakistan or at a neutral venue. Then, interestingly the PCB put forward another proposal intending to play its home series in India as hosts, with full control on financial and other matters related to the series.

As a last resort, the PCB was ready to accept some share of profit from the BCCI, which it will earn from the forthcoming short limited-overs series.

But the cash-rich BCCI, being an astute business-conscious organisation and knowing well PCB’s weaknesses, declined to share any benefit it will get from the series.