Published: Oct 01, 2015, 03:07 PM (IST)
Edited: Oct 01, 2015, 03:07 PM (IST)
Kolkata: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief Shahryar Khan has suggested that ‘cricket’ should be used as bridge of peace between India and Pakistan, and said the relationship between the two sides can be improved by playing the game. “I feel that the political relationship between India and Pakistan is not good these days, whatever that relationship, we should go ahead and play cricket, because that itself becomes public to public, a confidence building measure. So, this is my stake, this is what I say,” Shaharyar told media at Kolkata. “Let us use cricket as a bridge of peace and let us move forward, politics will sort itself,” he added.
Speaking further on the proposed series between the two countries in December, the 81-year-old said that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) should honour the agreement signed between the two countries.
“We have signed an MOU with India that we will play six series. The Pakistan series so far is in UAE. We have signed on the dotted line that we will play it. Now, this is the agreement between us, and I feel that the BCCI should honour that agreement. If they don’t honour it for political reasons, we have options up to us of answering back. We will suffer financial losses and we will suffer other losses .We will consider those options when we will come to that point and we have not come to that point,” he said.
Earlier, Shahryar had confirmed that he had received a reply from BCCI honorary secretary Anurag Thakur and that they would probably meet next week in Dubai on the sidelines of an ICC meeting.
“I received reply from Anurag Thakur that we will meet in a week’s time. In Dubai, we will confer there and we will probably decide what is to be done in future. The final decision of course lies with the Government of India and I cannot move the Government of India.”
On his visit to India, Shahryar said that he had come to condole the death of former BCCI President Jagmohan Dalmiya, adding that he was not his personal friend but a friend of India-Pakistan cricket. According to the MoU signed between the PCB and the BCCI , both countries are scheduled to play six series under the 2015-2023 Future Tours Programme, subject to clearance from the Indian Government. India has not played a full bilateral Test series with Pakistan since 2008 when the Mumbai terror attacks took place.
