PCB's Shahryar Khan says India will not play bilateral series: Report

New Delhi: Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Shahryar Khan on Wednesday stated that India will not play a bilateral series.

According to reports, Khan said that hopes of resumption of bilateral cricketing ties between India and Pakistan with a short series later this month are "dying" with too little time left to organise the big ticket event.

India and Pakistan were scheduled to play a short series involving limited overs matches in Sri Lanka later this month.

Expectations from fans and the two boards went up for the series to go ahead but a decision from the Indian government was awaited. As the two nations decided to meet regarding talks of political affairs, foreign ministers - Sushma Swaraj and Sartaj Aziz met in Islamabad on Wednesday.

It was expected that cricket too will be discussed in the meeting. With the political tensions high amongst the two nations cricket was seen as a measure to create more adaptability.

Shahryar said the Islamabad visit of Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj did not help in revival of the series. He also added that, "We wanted to play, but India did not respond positively. It is already too late to organise the series and we don t have time for the series anyway," he said referring to the proposed series in Sri Lanka

On Wednesday, BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur had said Sushma Swaraj's visit was a "step in the right direction" in improving bilateral relationship between India and Pakistan but just stopped from saying if a cricket series would go ahead.

According to FTP, India and Pakistan are supposed to play six series between 2015 and 2023 with four to be hosted by Pakistan.