PCB writes letter to BCCI for clarification of scheduled Pakistan-India series in December

Shaharyar Khan wants the BCCI to respect the MoU signed with the PCB

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has written a letter to its Indian counterparts, The Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI), seeking clarification on the Pakistan-India series scheduled to be held in December, Hindustan Times reports. With the series in serious danger of being called off, Pakistan wants India to go ahead with the tour urging “sports to be kept out of politics.”

The two cricketing boards had signed a Memorandum-of-Understanding back in 2014 as per which the arch rivals were set to take on each other five times in an eight-year period. In July this year, the fixtures of first of those five series were announced with which involved three Tests, five ODIs, and two T20s.

The joy was shortlived though as amid rising political tensions between the two Asian countries, the future of the series was thrown into serious jeopardy after BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur claimed on the back of the Gurdaspur terrorist attacks at the end of July that cricket and terrorism can’t go hand in hand.

Though Shaharyar Khan had claimed recently that Pakistan were not dependent on India and that they had started planning on alternate solutions if the proposed series with their neighbours was cancelled. However, he has now urged the BCCI to respect the MoU in an apparent final attempt to rescue the fate of the series.

"I have written a letter to Mr. Thakur, in the main saying that cricket and politics should be kept apart," Shaharyar Khan told AFP. “I am positive that the BCCI shall be able to convince the Indian government that it ought to honour its MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the PCB.”

Khan is a former foreign secretary and a diplomat while Thakur is a Member of Parliament of the ruling party in India, but the Pakistan national once again reiterated his stance that cricket should not be linked with the political scenario.

“While relations between Pakistan and India have seen its share of ups and downs, cricket should be kept out of it," he said.

The report further states that Thakur had softened his stance on the matter by claiming that the series was still a possibility, provided the relations between the two countries improved.

"If (the) situation improves I cannot rule out cricket series in December," Thakur told a private television channel in Pakistan. "I toured Pakistan in 2004 and was overwhelmed, and when Pakistan toured India the following year I distributed sweets on their captain's (Inzamam-ul-Haq) birthday."