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Indian government holding back resumption of bilateral series against Pakistan, says Shahryar Khan

India have had the upper hand when India and Pakistan have met in multi-team tournaments in the recent past.

Shahryar Khan is fine with the idea of India and Pakistan playing a bilateral series at a neutral venue © Getty Images
Shahryar Khan is fine with the idea of India and Pakistan playing a bilateral series at a neutral venue © Getty Images

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Shahryar Khan believes it is India who are holding back the progress on the revival of cricket between the two nations. India and Pakistan have played in the ICC tournaments lately but are yet to resume their bilateral ties, which have been on a downward slide as the political situations between the two neighbours have been a bit shaky. Shahryar  says that India and Pakistan had agreed to play a total of six bilateral series over the period of eight years, but not even one has materialised till date. He also hopes that the political situations between the India and Pakistan improves sooner rather than later. READ: Shahryar gets Sharif’s nod to continue as PCB chief

“These series would have been played in India or a mutually agreed venue in a third country. The BCCI told PCB that they needed permission from the Indian government for these series and PCB agreed to wait for that but that permission never came through,” said Shahryar, according to geo.tv.

He added, “PCB even agreed to play India in Sri Lanka back in December but even that permission was not forthcoming from the Indian side and as a result, the series didn’t happen. It also showed that India had not met PCB’s conditions for accepting the Big 3 formula”

“Pakistan government has never created any hurdles to this series and even at the time of the World Twenty20 when all sorts of threats were being made Pakistan team still participated in the tournament. It is the Indian government which is holding back progress on this series,” Pakpassion.net quoted him as saying. READ: Shahryar: PCB to request ICC to set up special fund

He also said that he will present his case to the ICC about the lack of international cricket in Pakistan. “The crux of the problem is that we cannot play home series against international sides which is denigrating towards us. We intend to propose that as we cannot play series at home and we are obliged to hire expensive venues in other countries, therefore, the ICC should help us overcome this problem. Let’s see how the ICC reacts to it and whilst they may be receptive to the idea whether a formula emerges to compensate us for this expenditure is yet to be seen,” he said.

Shahryar also praised Test skipper Misbah-ul-Haq, claiming that he has been a wonderful captain. “We are ranked number three in the Test rankings but we are way down in limited-overs rankings. I am hopeful that Misbah will lead the team on a successful tour and despite his age, we don t see signs of a decline in his fitness and his capacity to play cricket.” READ: Shahryar: PCB not in favour of hosting World T20 2018

“I will do everything I can to ensure Misbah carries on playing for and captaining Pakistan. Misbah and Younis Khan are the two fittest men in our young team. I hope this tour will be a successful one and Misbah will be ready to carry on his duties as Test team captain against Australia and West Indies etc,’ he said.

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