A senior official of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has advised the Pakistan Cricket Board to start developing a safe venue at home instead of continuing to play its “home” series in UAE.
Rajeev Shukla, who is also Chairman of the IPL, said that Pakistan needed to develop safe venues instead of agreeing to play in UAE.
“If Pakistan continues to play in UAE its cricket will slowly slowly suffer. Lahore can easily be made into a safe venue,” Shukla said on Geo News channel.
“If PCB makes Lahore a safe venue by constructing a team hotel near it and by providing adequate security then India will have no objection to playing in Lahore,” he said.
But Shukla then clarified that India would be willing to play in Lahore if Pakistan gave the International Cricket Council proper security assurances and other member boards also had no objections to play there.
“If Lahore is made a safe venue then everyone will come and play there.”
Shukla reminded about the MOU signed between the two boards last year admitted there was a MOU but noted it was signed when someone else headed the ICC and BCCI.
“Now our current president wants Pakistan and India to play against each other but in each other’s countries,” he added.
“We are saying this time come and play in India...we are ready to compensate for the home series losses we will give bigger participation fees and when things improve in Pakistan we will go there and play one or two series. We have no issues,” he said.
Shukla to a question insisted there was nothing wrong in Pakistan playing in India in December as India would provide adequate security and also compensate the PCB well.
“I don’t think this is such a big issue ... why make an ego issue of it and insist on playing in Dubai only,” he stated.
When pressed as to what problem India had with playing in UAE when it had held a leg of the IPL in Dubai this year, Shukla avoided giving a direct reply and maintained Pakistan should not make it such a big issue.
When reminded that other teams had no objections to playing in Dubai or at other venues in UAE, Shukla said the BCCI had its own policies.
“We have our own policy. We don’t care about what other countries do and what is their policy,” he said.
“We want resumption of cricket ties with Pakistan.”
Shukla also insisted that when the PCB delegation visited Mumbai the Shiv Sena activists had not bothered or touched them.
“They came to the Wankhede stadium and spoke to the BCCI President and they raised slogans but they didn’t bother the PCB officials.”
Shukla maintained that the PCB and Pakistan government should sit together and make Lahore a safe venue and invite teams to play there.
“If one incident happened does it mean there should no cricket in Pakistan,” he said referring to the militants attack on the Sri Lankan team in March 2009 after which top test teams have refused to tour Pakistan because of security concerns.
“I would say build on the success of the tour by Zimbabwe to Lahore,” he added.
There is pressure on BCCI: PCB official
A top official of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has said that there is pressure from the international cricket community on the BCCI to honour the MOU signed with the PCB.
Najam Sethi, who was Chairman of the PCB when the MOU was signed last year to play six bilateral series between 2015 and 2023, said on Friday that they were also plans to invite a Commonwealth team to Pakistan.
“I can tell you this that the President of the England and Wales Cricket Board Giles Clarke is scheduled to meet with Shashank Manohar in Dubai this weekend,” Sethi said on Geo News channel.
“Giles is helping us in our issues because he is also head of the task force on Pakistan cricket in the International Cricket Council (ICC) and is working on bringing a Commonwealth team to Pakistan,” Sethi who is now head of the PCB’s powerful executive committee said.
“I can’t say much at this time but we know this much that the meeting between Clarke and Manohar (the President of the BCCI and Chairman of the ICC) is important since India is under pressure to fulfill the MOU with us,” Sethi said.
Clarke is also scheduled to visit Lahore with a security expert to assess the security situation in Pakistan.
Sources in the PCB told PTI that a visit by a Commonwealth team to play some matches in Lahore and perhaps Karachi could be the plan B by the Pakistan board incase India does not agree to play the first series of the MOU in December in the UAE.
The BCCI President has said that India will not play in the UAE and it is ready to host Pakistan in India.
But Sethi said that since he had signed the MOU he was clear that there was a clause clearly stipulating that the series has to be played in the UAE.
“They (India) have no excuse for not playing in UAE the MOU is between PCB and BCCI and it states clearly that the series will be held in the UAE or any other mutually accepted venue,” he said.
“According to them this could be India and according to us it is Pakistan but it is clearly written that the December series first choice venue is UAE.”
He said BCCI shouldn’t try to distort facts and the ICC had never advised any team not to play in Pakistan and secondly the MOU was not signed under the ICC umbrella.
