Srinivasan has agreed for an India-Pakistan bilateral series: PCB chairman Zaka Ashraf

Pakistan vs. India

Zaka Ashraf, the Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has said that his Indian counterpart N Srinivasan has given him a verbal assurance for a bilateral series with Pakistan which will be held at a neutral venue, although nothing has been written and finalised yet.

“Mr Srinivasan has reassured me they are serious about playing a bilateral series with us even at neutral venues of our choice, but eventually we will need some written assurances and firm guarantees that this series will happen,” Ashraf told the media in Lahore on Monday.

The offer by the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) has been termed as a positive gesture by Ashraf.

“We want to be sure that this proposed series against India will actually take place, because you have to keep in mind that India had avoided playing regular bilateral series with us in recent years,” he said.

Ashraf further suggested that Pakistan has toured India in 2007 and 2013, in contrast to India who have only toured Pakistan once in 2008 for the Asia Cup during the same period.

This proposal of a bilateral series has come in hindsight of the draft proposal moved by India, Australia and England to the ICC for the restructuring of the governance model of the World Body. The proposal also has plans to revise the revenue and finances distribution among the member nations.

PCB would be demanding guarantees and written assurances from the BCCI for any future series, commented the chairman when asked about the relations with India.

He further said that previously the BCCI had told the PCB to sing the draft proposal that had been moved by the three boards, although that stance has changed since then.

He further commented that the PCB is currently in talks with the South African and Sri Lankan cricket boards, to have regular series with them.

“With South Africa we are looking to have a regular series named the Jinnah-Mandela trophy,” he said.

When asked about the recent fiasco concerning Umar Akmal and his alleged assault on a traffic cop, Ashraf said that the board will be looking further into the matter to get to the root cause of the incident.