The Pakistani government has not given PCB the permission to tour India for a bilateral series. This clearly means the end of the road for any hopes for a resumed Indo-Pak cricket rivalry. The primary reasons behind denying PCB the permission were “security reason”, as per a report by the Hindustan Times.
“The Pakistani government position is that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) cannot play in India without the government’s permission which has not been given. The government raised security and safety issues for the PCB regarding playing in India,” Najam Sethi, the chief of the PCB’s executive committee, told HT.
“I don’t know why India doesn’t want to play in the UAE. It recently played IPL matches there. We are waiting for a fresh proposal from the BCCI. But our position is clear. We are not going to play in India,” Sethi added. “This is Pakistan’s ‘home’ series which means that choice of venue is PCB’S right and all revenues accrue to PCB just as when it is India’s home series in 2017, all revenues will accrue to BCCI and the venue will be of India’s choice,” Sethi said.
An official from BCCI was quoted saying, “There were lots of talks with Mr Khan on various issues. But nothing was discussed officially. Also, the BCCI has not written to its government seeking a clearance for a series with Pakistan.”