Too many Indo-Pak ties a worry: PCB

“After India completes its tour of Pakistan sometime in January-February next year both the boards are going to sit down and discuss this issue,” PCB chairman Shahrayar Khan was quoted as saying by local daily The News today.

“We feel that perhaps Pakistan and India are playing too much cricket against each other since the revival of cricket ties and we need to reach a bilateral agreement on how much cricket we should play against each other in a, say, five-year cycle,” he explained.

Since last March-April, both teams have played 15 one-day internationals and six Tests against each other in a 11-month period. And early next year India is due to tour Pakistan to play three Tests and five one-day internationals while sometime in March or April they will clash again in the Asia Cup in Pakistan.

“We don’t want a situation where people may become tired of watching Pakistan-India matches. We don’t want an excess of Indo-Pak matches at any point of time. Already in one-year’s time we have played a lot against each other.”

Sources in the PCB said Shahrayar had already discussed with BCCI officials recently in New Delhi the possibility of extending the gap between the bilateral series.