Uma Bharti favours Pak tour

However, the issue was presently awaiting a final decision with the external affairs ministry, she said. Pakistan should treat sports and politics separately, she added .

She also said the national sports policy would be announced in the coming budget session of parliament.

Bharti said the sport policy would ensure an all-round development of the players. She said that there was a need for searching hidden talents in the rural area.

Earlier, India dismissed reports that the cancelled Indian cricket team’s tour of Pakistan was still on saying there was no proposal to review its decision not to External Affairs Ministry spokesman said “there is no proposal at present to review the decision regarding our cricket team’s tour of Pakistan.”

The Indian Government had refused permission to the Cricket Board to send a team on a tour of Pakistan as it said the atmosphere, following the Kargil War and that country’s support to militants in Kashmir, was not conducive.

When contacted over phone in Baroda, Cricket Board secretary Jaywant Lele refused to comment.

“It is a sensitive matter, I can’t say anything on it,”he said.

The fresh round of speculation about the tour started after Pakistan Cricket Board Chief Lt Gen Tauqir Zia said in Islamabad on Monday that he had received positive signals that India could go there for a short tour next month.

Zia said Pakistan’s representative in the International Cricket Council Ehsan Mani had talked to BCCI president AC Muthiah who told him that India was planning a short tour of Pakistan.

The tour, comprising four Tests and five one-dayers, was originally scheduled for December-January but was cancelled by the Indian Government citing Pakistan’s support to cross-border terrorism in Kashmir.