If government agrees, there will be space for India-Pakistan bilateral series: BCCI

The Indian government has not given any go-ahead to Indo-Pak bilateral series since the last one was held in India in 2012.

New Delhi: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Monday (December 11) gave strong signs on the possible resumption of bilateral cricketing ties with Pakistan.

After the board's Special General Meeting in Delhi, BCCI acting secretary Amitabh Chaudhary told media persons that "if the government agrees, there will be space for India-Pakistan bilateral series."

The Indian government has not given any go-ahead to Indo-Pak bilateral series since the last one (a short limited-overs series) was held in India in 2012. But the arch-rivals have not played a full bilateral series since 2007.

Since then, India have played against Pakistan only in ICC events, most recently in the Champions Trophy in England.

India ended cricketing ties with Pakistan in the wake of 2008 Mumbai attacks, which killed more than 160 people and nearly brought nuclear-armed arch-enemies to the brink of war.

But Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has been desperately pushing for the resumption of ties, and even threatened to take legal action against BCCI for not honouring a memorandum of understanding signed in 2014.

“Our case is that the BCCI signed a MoU with us in 2014 to play six bilateral series, starting with our home series, which they have not done as yet. Secondly they have avoided playing us in bilateral series since 2008 although they have no issues playing against us in ICC events,” the then PCB chairman Najam Sethi had said while talking about a possible compensation claim.