The much hyped bilateral series between Indian and Pakistan has finally materialized after months of talks. Shaharyar Khan confirmed the news that BCCI officially invited Pakistan to play a short limited over series in India, which is likely to be played in north India. The series will be “home” series for Pakistan.
Khan held a press conference in Lahore, where he revealed that a formal proposal has been dispatched to PCB office by his counterpart Shashank Manohar during a phone conversation on Friday.
“Shashank Manohar called me up on Friday evening and told me they have got clearance from their government to play against us. But he said they wanted to play the series in India and not in the UAE,” Shaharyar said.
“Manohar also said that the Indian board would provide the best security to our team and schedule the matches in places like Mohali and Kolkata where there is no problem at playing an Indo-Pak match,” Shaharyar added.
“Thirdly he said that the Indian board would devise a formula to ensure that we don’t suffer any loss of revenues for playing our home series in India,” he said.
However, Khan said that Pakistan would like to play the December series in UAE as per the MOU signed with the BCCI.
“Why should we play our home series in India and not in UAE which is stated in the MOU and there is the matter of security for our team and plus the nearly $50 million that we expect to earn from hosting the series,” he said.
“I told Manohar how can we play in India when there are so many anti-Pakistan sentiments there by some of their groups. We have played our last two series in India and I think it is the time we now got to host the series,” Shaharyar said.
The PCB chief said the final decision on Manohar’s offer will be taken on governors meeting on November 17.
“But more importantly I have to first also seek clearance from the prime minister for any decision we take. At the moment I have told the Indian cricket chief to send us a detailed proposal in writing,” he said.
Meanwhile, the head of the PCB’s executive committee Najm Sethi on Saturday told the media that he would not support the BCCI’s offer to play the series in India.
“In my personal opinion we should not go to India as it is our home series and the BCCI should honour the MOU they signed with us which states Pakistan will host this series,” Sethi said.
Sethi was the chairman of the board when the PCB and BCCI signed an MOU last year under which the two countries will play a six bilateral series against each other between 2015 and 2023 with Pakistan hosting the first series in December year in UAE.
The newly elected BCCI president Shashank Manohar has shown a positive attitude towards the series while Indian home minister Rajnath Singh has said that India wants better ties with Pakistan through cricket. Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif also gave green signal about the series in December. 