KARACHI: The Pakistan Cricket Board said on Tuesday England have offered tobe a neutral host for future Pakistan-India Test series, opening thepossibility of the two countries playing bilateral cricket for the firsttime in over 15 years.
On Tuesday, the British newspaper, the Telegraph, said Martin Darlow, thedeputy chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, had held talks withthe PCB during the current Twenty20 series and offered England’s grounds asvenues for ideally a three-match Test series in the future.
“This offer has been made, we confirm it but nothing beyond that,” a PCBspokesperson told Arab News, declining further comment.
India and Pakistan, who are political arch-rivals and have one of theworld’s greatest sporting rivalries, play each other regularly in ICC WorldCup events and last month in the Asia Cup as well, with matches attractinghuge sponsorship revenue and television audiences. When India playedPakistan in the semifinal of the 2011 World Cup, the television audiencewas calculated to be 495 million.
“But there has been a hardening under the [Prime Minister] Narendra Modigovernment in India toward Pakistan and for political reasons the twocountries have not played bilateral Test cricket since Pakistan touredIndia in 2007,” the Telegraph said.
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“Pakistan players are also barred from playing in the IPL [Indian PremierLeague], a scenario that could spread if IPL owners buy teams in otherleagues. For example, no Pakistan players are playing in the South AfricaT20 league in February where all the teams have India owners, raisingquestions about the influence of private investment in national leagues.”
The Telegraph said Pakistan were not keen on playing India at the moment ata neutral venue but were “grateful for the ECB’s offer, which shows thegrowing relationship between the two boards
