Breaking: Pakistan's Plea Accepted In ACC Meeting, Under-19 Asia Cup 2017 Shifted From India To Malaysia 1

Pakistan’s plea of shifting the Under-19 Asia 2017 out of India has been expected at the at the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) meeting in Colombo on Saturday (August 12).

India was due to host the tournament in November, but with Pakistan Cricket Board calling for the tournament in India to be moved to a neutral venue, citing security fears, it has now been relocated to Malaysia.

With political tensions escalating, India and Pakistan have not played in a bilateral Test series since 2007 when Pakistan visited India for three Tests and five One-Day Internationals. They played a short series of three ODIs and two T20s in India in December 2012 but otherwise, both have faced each other only in ICC events or Asia Cup.

In 2013, officials were forced to move Women’s World Cup matches from Mumbai to Cuttack over security fears and protests over Pakistan’s participation. The same year, relations between the two nations took another hit when Pakistani hockey players were expelled from a hockey league after protests. Last year, Pakistan blamed a delay in visas for their non-participation in the Junior World Cup in India.

The PCB has also initiated legal action against India for not honouring a Memorandum of Understanding which was signed between the two boards in 2014. As per the deal, the two countries were set to play six senior series between 2014-2023, subject to clearance from government. However, the Indian government has not given the green light to the BCCI to resume bilateral ties with the country from across the border. And any hope of seeing the bitter rivals resuming bilateral ties in the coming days is looking extremely bleak as of now.

Meanwhile, the latest event has also cast a shadow over the next year’s Asia Cup which is scheduled to be played in India. During the ACC meeting in October 2015, the BCCI had announced that it would host the tournament in 2018 but considering the recent turn of events, it looks unlikely that Pakistan would send their team to India.