Reports: England to host Indo-Pak Test series next year

India and Pakistan haven’t played a Test match since 2007

The much awaited India, Pakistan series can be played in two parts with Sri Lanka and England being the venues. According to reports the island country will host One Day Internationals next month while Test matches will be played at England next year. However, a formal announcement is yet to come.

A meeting between cricket board chiefs of both the nations, Shaharyar Khan and Shashank Manohar, was held in Dubai. While talking to PTI, a source in Pakistan's Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination said, “PCB Chairman Shaharyar Khan has sought the permission of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the foreign ministry to play a limited-overs series with India in Sri Lanka next month. The plan is that Pakistan would tour India in 2017 for a full series, while before that India will play us in two phases. Indications are that the Tests will be held in England in summer.”

Giles Clarke, Pres President of the England and Wales Cricket Board acted as the mediator in this meeting. Another PCB source said that it was ECB President who proposed England as a venue. Manohar had cleared out in the meeting why India doesn’t want to play in December at UAE. He also requested his Pakistani counterpart not to give undesired statements to the media as it affects cricket relations of both the nations. Also, both the boards’ chiefs have decided to keep mum on the issue until the governments give a nod and an official announcement is made.

The source said, “Manohar made it clear that cricket relations were also being affected because of confidential discussions between the two boards being made public in the media. That is one reason why Shaharyar has declined to give details of his meeting with the Indian board chief.” He also added that one of the reasons for picking these two venues is Pakistan will earn a lot of revenues from broadcasting deals. In 2010 when Pakistan played two Tests at Lord’s and Headingly against Australia, presence of a large South Asian population in the United Kingdom had resulted in success of these matches.

Since 2007 India and Pakistan have not faced each other in a single Test match. Pakistan will tour England for a full series that will start from July.