ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Anurag Thakur has made a surprise u-turn on the planned bilateral cricket series between India and Pakistan.
Thakur, who is also a Lok Sabha MP from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had recently vouched for the series between the two countries.
However, later while talking to Indian news channel, he criticised the upcoming series between the two countries, casting doubts over the planned event in Sri Lanka, Cricket Country reported on Thursday.
The BCCI secretary told the news channel that India cannot play cricket with Pakistan.
Earlier, Thakur expressed happiness over Sushma Swaraj’s visit to Pakistan, and resumption of peace talks between the two countries.
“We play Pakistan in the World Cup. We played them in the 2015 World Cup, we’ll play them next year in the Asia Cup. Then we’ll again play them in the month of March in World T20. So when you play them in a multinational tournament in world events, then what stops you from playing them in a bilateral series. So that’s the question we have to answer,” he had said.
BCCI secretary said Sushma Swaraj’s visit was a “step in the right direction” in improving bilateral relationship between India and Pakistan but just stopped from saying if a cricket series would go ahead.
The two countries, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in 2014 that Pakistan would host their next series after India had staged their previous two meetings (2007 and 2012).
According to the ICC calendar, India and Pakistan were originally schedule to play two Tests, five ODIs and two Twenty20 internationals in December-January 2016.
Source: APP
