BCCI moves fast, plans tour to Pak

The Indian Test team looks set to tour Pakistan early next year, 15 years after it last played there. External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sin...

The Indian Test team looks set to tour Pakistan early next year, 15 years after it last played there. External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha today authorised the BCCI to talk independently to its counterpart in Pakistan, signalling the end of a four-year moratorium on bilateral cricketing ties.

The news was welcomed by BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya, who said that the board had been ‘‘pleading’’ for resumption of cricketing ties. And, though Dalmiya said ‘‘nothing was final’’ regarding the tour schedule, sources in the TV industry — which has a large stake in the series — say three Tests and seven ODIs have been planned for a five-week tour between end-February and early April.

The schedule is likely to be finalised when Dalmiya and PCB chief Tauqir Zia meet in Barbados next Wednesday on ICC work.

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Reacting to the news, the PCB came out strongly in favour of resuming ties.

Its CEO Rameez Raja, who was in India for an ICC meeting last month, said people in Pakistan
had been ‘‘starved’’ of watching the Indian team in action.

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf had often gone on record calling for full sporting ties, including Test cricket, to be resumed between the two nations.

Dalmiya acknowledged that, adding, ‘‘It’s been a long time and both the boards (BCCI and PCB) have been pressing for bilateral tours. It’s happened now and the decision will please the people of both countries immensely.’’

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When India do tour, only one member of the team will be familiar with the Pakistani pitches: Sachin Tendulkar, who made his Test debut on the last series in 1989 (he scored two half-centuries against the pace of Wasim and Waqar).

Pakistan’s last tour of India was in 1999, for a three-Test series.

There have been no subsequent tours from either side since but the Centre had cleared the Indian under-19 team’s visit to Pakistan for a four-nation tournament starting October 29.

The news was welcomed by the ICC, whose president Ehsan Mani noted in a statement that India-Pakistan cricket rivalry is one of the great rivalries‘‘not only in cricket but in world sport’’.

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