Pakistani cricket officials were left disappointed by their Indian counterparts, who rejected the proposal to play a short one-day series in March.

BCCI president Sharad Pawar personally called up his Pakistani counterpart Nasim Ashraf to convey that the series was not possible because of a tight schedule of the Indian team.

“The Indian Board has said that their players have been on tour for the last three months and start a home series against South Africa from March 26 and are already very fatigued. The players want a rest period of one or two weeks before they play South Africa,” a PCB official said on Sunday.

The Indian Board has, however, promised to play the three matches before the ICC Champions Trophy in September-October in Pakistan.

The PCB official said India’s postponement of the proposed tour was a setback but confirmed an invitation was also with the Sri Lankans for a five-match ODI series.

“Hopefully the Sri Lankans will respond positively. They also have a tight schedule in the coming weeks but we are trying to arrange some international matches for our players and we also have other commitments to look at,” said the PCB official.