BCCI Secretary Anurag Thakur confirms cancellation of talks with PCB

Anurag Thakur said that no official talks would be held in New Delhi on Tuesday

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Anurag Thakur said that talks with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) over reviving cricket ties has been cancelled for now, reports IBN Live. When asked about reports of PCB chief Shahryar Khan’s planned meeting with senior BCCI official Arun Jaitely, Thakur said that the meeting, should it happen, would be an unofficial one.

Earlier on Monday, the meeting scheduled between BCCI President Shashank Manohar and Shaharyar Khan to discuss the future of the India-Pakistan series scheduled for December in the UAE had to be called off after Shiv Sena workers stormed the BCCI office in Mumbai and disrupted proceedings.

Despite the chaotic turn of events today, rumours were still adrift about an alternate location for holding the talks. But BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur silenced all those rumours by announcing that talks had been called off for now.

"Officially there is no meeting scheduled in New Delhi. If the talks happen, they will take place in Mumbai at the BCCI headquarters. The BCCI and PCB have some outstanding issues and the PCB chief wanted to meet the BCCI president to discuss those things but those have been cancelled now,” Thakur said.

Thakur condemned the attacks strongly and said that Shiv Sena had no right to physically enforce themselves to state their point.

"I condemn this attack because you cannot barge into the BCCI office and force cancellation of the talks. In a democracy, you can protest but you can do it on the streets but you can't barge into anyone's office, home or headquarters," he said.

Najam Sethi, the chairman of the executive committee of the PCB, who was part of the three-member delegation along with Shahryar Khan and chief operating officer Subhan Ahmad, said that they would be returning to Pakistan soon and added that they were disappointed at the attacks as well as the BCCI’s attitude in the aftermath of the attacks.

“We are saddened that nobody from BCCI met us or informed us on what happened. Indian authorities have not got back to us. I can't see why a meeting could not be held after what happened in the morning. We are flying back There was no response from BCCI about today," Sethi said, as reported by India Today.

ICC president Zaheer Abbas also condemned the attacks and remarked that Pakistan could boycott next year’s T20 World Cup to be held in India.

"Pakistan and India cricket authorities must work it out, otherwise I fear the Pakistan players could also refuse to tour India for the upcoming World T20 Cup, citing security concerns, I don't know what the environment will be when the World T20 is held in India but if this situation persists, obviously there will be extra pressure on our players", he said.