Its official now! Pakistan set to play 3 ODI’s and 2 T20I on their short tour to India in December.
In a surprising turn of events, the meeting that was primarily deemed to be for discussing and approving the changes proposed by BCCI technical committee on domestic cricket is now pulled something out of hat. The news that was reported couple of months ago is true now. BCCI officially announced today that Pakistan team will come to India for a short tour in December when the already touring side England goes back for Christmas celebration before coming back on to play ODI series.
Cricket ties resumed: India will play 3 ODI’s and 2 T20’s against Pakistan at home
Rajiv Shukla, a senior BCCI official, said the plan was to hold the three ODIs in Chennai, Delhi and Kolkata, and the Twenty20 matches in Ahmedabad and Bangalore. When asked about the delay in the bilateral series talk since both PCB and BCCI had lots of meeting in last six months during several ICC meetings, “The BCCI was firm that no India-Pakistan series will be held at a neutral venue so it was decided to invite them [Pakistan] after December 22 when the England team leaves after playing the Twenty20 Internationals“, Shukla said.
Shukla further added that the BCCI sort permission from Indian ministers before announcing the series, “This was the slot where the tour could have been accommodated and we did that accordingly. I have spoken to the home minister and he has said his ministry has no objection. The Ministry of External Affairs [India’s foreign ministry] has also agreed to this tour.“
This will be the first bilateral series between India and Pakistan after December 2007. Following the Mumbai attack on November 2008, the ties between two nations are broken. Since then both declined to tour each other for cricket series. Although this announcement is long coming with a meeting between delegates of both nation boards took place during nearly every ICC meeting and the recent inclusion of Pakistan team in Champions League t20 further confirmed the improvements on the ties. In the last year itself, not only cricket boards officials but also even the national official delegates and ministers had several meeting discussing on revival of trust and relation.
England will go back home after finishing T20 series in December 22 for Christmas celebrations before arriving back to play in one day series starting from January 11th. So, in-between India will have 18 days where they now play against Pakistan. This will add lots of color to the game of cricket since this is the biggest of all series mainly for the sheer atmosphere and fan following it generates. The whole cricket community will be happy at the resuming of cricket between these two nations.
This might be a short tour but the importance goes lot higher. Lets all wish, everything goes well and series happens to much of both nations delight.
Tags: BCCI, Bilateral series, Cricket, Cricket rivalry, ICC, India to host Pakistan, India vs Pakistan, Pakistan Cricket Team, Pakistan tour of India, PCB
