Pakistan tour’s Test venues surprising: PCB

ISLAMABAD, JAN 1: The Pakistan Cricket Board today expressed surprise over selection of New Delhi and Chennai as Test venues for the forthcoming Indian Tour of Pakistan cricket team but said it has full confidence on the Indian authorities for providing proper security for the matches.

PCB chairman Kahlid Mahmood told PTI over phone from Lahore he was yet to get official intimation from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) about the venues for the series starting in the last week of January.When told BCCI had already announced the itinerary and that the first Test would be in New Delhi and the second at Chennai or Kanpur, he expressed surprise saying, “these were not the cities which were discussed as probable venues when we visited India recently.”

Mahmood, however, confirmed that Calcutta was discussed as one of the probable venues.

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BCCI has selected Calcutta for the India-Pakistan Asian Test Championship match from February 16 to 20.

But the PCB chairman was quick to add that till nowthere was no hitch in the tour going ahead.

“As of today the tour is on,” he said but added PCB would satisfy itself about the venues by getting information from other sources including the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi.