MUMBAI: This is an interesting development, but one that SportzPower will reserve comment on as the news has come from the “wrong side of the fence”.
If Pakistan’s Jang newspaper is to be believed, India and Pakistan could play a short Twenty20 bilateral cricket series later this year. What lends the report, which was published Wednesday, some semblance of heft though, is that it comes on the heels of a recent thawing of the frosty relations that has long existed between the two countries.
IF, this series were to take place, it would be the first bilateral exchange between the two countries in over eight years. The last bilateral series was played in 2012-13, when the Pakistani team visited India for a short ODI and T20 series, IANS reports.
Coming back to the Jang report, an unnamed Pakistan Cricket Board official has been quoted as saying that the PCB has been asked to “be ready” for a series with India.
“A PCB official said that while there has been no direct discussion with anyone from India, indications are there and we have been told to be ready for such a series,” said official told the Urdu newspaper.
Interestingly, India skipper Virat Kohli, during the recent T20I series against England, had said that he has been told by the Board of Control for Cricket in India that there was going to be a few more T20 series this year. However, it bears pointing out that the countries in the frame to participate are South Africa and New Zealand, NOT Pakistan.
As a top BCCI official told IANS on Wednesday, “No, we have no information on India playing a series with Pakistan.”
Pakistan’s Geo TV quoted PCB chairman Ehsan Mani as saying that they have not been contacted by anyone for a possible India-Pakistan series and neither has he been part of any discussion with his Indian counterpart on the issue.
If the PCB chief has refused to lend credence to said report, as too top rungs of the BCCI, SportzPower would tend to go with their positions rather than the Jang report, which appears from this perch as being high on hope and low on actual substance.
