India-Pakistan cricket officials to meet on December 17 at Colombo says reports

Indo-Pak relations have taken a severe hit recently owing to cross-border terrorism and this has affected sports too. Sporting events between the two countries in a home/away format have been indefinitely suspended but reportedly there’s a faint glimmer of hope for fans now.

According to a Pakistani tabloid, cricket officials of both the countries will meet on December 17 in the Sri Lankan city of Colombo to discuss the suspended bilateral cricketing ties.

According to a source close to the website, the meeting will be held during the Asian Cricket Council meet (ACC).

In the meeting, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Shaharyar Khan, who also is the top boss of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) will be accompanied by Subhan Ahmad and Najam Sethi.

The latter is said to have met Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Anurag Thakur during a meeting of the ICC. There reportedly he had spoken at length about their plan to take part in a triangular or quadrangular series but Thakur then had refused to say they were not permitted by the government.

The website also claims that the BCCI chairperson had shared an idea about a multination tourney which could be held in India or at a neutral venue where the two heavyweight teams could lock horns against each other.

The source also added that back then Sethi had told Thakur that although he was sharing such an idea, the Indians were not even thinking about playing against Pakistan in the ICC Champions Trophy.

Now, the PCB will wait until December 17 to see where the Indo-Pak relations in cricket are going before taking a legal route to seek compensation from India or ICC due to BCCI refusal to have the Indian cricket team featuring in a bilateral series with the neighbouring country.

At an ICC meeting at Capetown Pakistan wanted ICC to take action against India who refused to send their women’s team to Dubai for the ICC cricket league to play against Pakistan.

However, after seeing that India had chosen not to participate in the series which was to be staged in Pakistan, the ICC technical committee gave away to the Pakistan team.

The men’s team last played a bilateral series in 2007.