India was scheduled to play Pakistan in a short bilateral series starting December 24th which included 3 ODIs and 2 T20 matches. The series was planned to be played in Sri Lanka but the final go ahead for the series was still required from the Government of India to start the arrangements. But now the GOI has given its thumbs down to the event and there is going to be a no show.
There was a lot of excitement for the series to go ahead since India and Pakistan matches have always been very high intensity affairs. To discuss about the series, the Foreign Ministers of both the countries had met in Islamabad and everyone was hoping that the series gets a go ahead, but instead the talks fell down and the series got cancelled. The fans would have had wanted the series to go ahead, cricket could have healed the wounds of the political issues between the two countries.
“We were hopeful that Sushma Swaraj’s visit will make things better but it did not happen,” Shahryar Khan quoted to local Pakistani news. PCB will not be able to take the news of the series being cancelled to easily. The Pakistan Government had cleared the tour the previous month itself and everything was being readied, but the Indian Government played spoilsport; big time.
“We wanted to play, but India did not respond positively. It is already too late to organize the series and we don’t have time for the series anyway,” he said and added, “Will decide the future plan after analyzing options under legal aspects and consultation.”
India has signed a MoU in 2014 with Pakistan that they will play a bilateral series hosted by Pakistan in the ICC. In the previous two bilateral series, India was the one who had hosted the events in 2007 and 2012. But apparently the GOI now thinks that it is difficult for the series of these two countries to go ahead since there is the threat of terror all the time.
The arch rivals have faced each other numerous times in the last couple of years in various ICC events like the World Cup, Champions Trophy, etc. but they have not played a bilateral series with each other or even a triangular series for that matter since 2012.
According to the ICC FTP (Future Tours Program) India was to play Pakistan in a 2 Test, 5 ODI and 2 T20 matches series in the period of December 2015 – January 2016. Apparently earlier India was skeptical over the venue of the series being played and India has even offered Pakistan to let them host the series in India as well, but this did not go well with the PCB officials.
Pakistan have always kept their stand that they want to play the series at home which means the UAE which Pakistan uses as their home since the country is not in a stable state to host a proper cricket series.
rounak