‘No decision on reviving Indo-Pak cricket ties’
India has not yet decided to resume the cricketing relation with Pakistan, although it is keen to encourage bilateral 'contacts' in other sports.
Amid speculations about resumption of cricketing ties between the two neighbours, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao on Wednesday clarified that New Delhi was yet to take such a decision.
“Hv (have) been asked abt (about) resumption of cricket ties with Pak. Want to clarify no such decision, although sporting contacts may be encouraged,” Rao said in a post on the micro-blogging website, Twitter.
The cricket teams of India and Pakistan did not tour each other’s country for the past two-and-a-half years ever since the November 26, 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai strained the diplomatic ties between the two countries. But when they played each other at the World Cup semifinal at Mohali near Chandigarh on March 30 last, the match witnessed return of bonhomie, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh playing host to his Pakistani counterpart Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani and watching the match with his guest.
Seeking to take the cricket diplomacy further, Gilani invited Singh and Team India to Pakistan, fuelling speculation for a tour by Mahinder Singh Dhoni’s eleven to the neighbouring country.
New Delhi too indicated that it was not averse to let Team India tour Pakistan. But with the Board of Control for Cricket in India and Pakistan Cricket Board finding it difficult to squeeze in a test or a one-day series in the tight schedule of the two countries, New Delhi seems to be reluctant to formally announce resumption of the cricketing ties.
“Sporting contacts btw India and Pak, bar (barring) cricket, have been taking place.
These can be encouraged further,” tweeted Foreign Secretary, amid reports that Islamabad is keen to invite the national hockey team for a series of three matches with that of Pakistan.
The Pakistan Hockey Federation was keen to invite India later in the year for matches at Lahore, Karachi and Faisalabad. Pakistani hockey team came to India twice last year, for the World Cup and the Commonwealth Games.
