Islamabad, Oct 22: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) today welcomed External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha's announcements to restore full cricket ties and allow its cricket team to tour Pakistan next year in February. "I whole-heartedly welcome India's decision to send its team to Pakistan. We are very delighted and appreciate that Indian government decision to resume bilateral cricket ties," Chief Executive of Pakistan Cricket Board Ramiz Raja said while reacting to Sinha's announcement.
Sinha, while speaking to reporters in New Delhi today proposed 12 confidence building measures including full resumption of cricketing and other sporting links.
Raja also hoped that the itinerary of the series would be discussed between PCB chiarman Lt Gen (Retd) Tauqir Zia and BCCI president Jaghmohan Dalmiya during the ICC executive board meeting scheduled at Barbados on October 29.
"The PCB has always maintained that sports and politics should not be mixed. To improve relationship, there has to be a people-to-people contact and cricket can be a good medium. I remember in the 1989 test at Lahore, people came from New Delhi, Amritsar and likewise when Pakistan played in 1997 and then in 1999, people from Pakistan went to Chandigarh and other Indian cities," Raja said.
Bureau Report