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| Team India’s Pak tour called off | | | Agencies
New Delhi, Dec 18: Taking into account the "recent developments in Mumbai", the government has asked the Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) not to proceed with Indian team’s tour to Pakistan , according to a top BCCI official.
Senior BCCI official Rajeev Shukla said, "The proposed tour of the Indian cricket team to Pakistan stands cancelled."
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Sports Minister MS Gill have also personally talked to BCCI President Shashank Manohar to convey their decision.
The Sports Minister gave the first indication of the government view when he sent out a strong message by bluntly suggesting that the team's tour of Pakistan should not go ahead.
The Minister had said it was not the right time to play cricket with Pakistan when "people from their soil were indulging in mass murder in India".
"Is it possible for one team to arrive in Mumbai and indulge in mass murder, and have another team go and play cricket in the winter afternoon sun at Lahore, immediately after," he had said.
The January 13-February 19 tour was to have involved three tests, five one-day games and a Twenty20 international, but required government approval.
The cancellation of the tour will hit Pakistan hard with the cash-starved PCB having already suffered with many teams calling off tours in the recent past.
Hit hard by teams after teams refusing to tour the country because of the volatile security situation there, Pakistan has not hosted a major international tournament since the Asia Cup in June this year.
The high-profile Champions Trophy, which was originally scheduled to be held in Pakistan in September this year, had to be deferred with most teams refusing to tour the country. The Indian junior hockey team's tour was also cancelled last
‘
month.
Desperate to salvage the series, PCB Chairman Ejaz Butt had decided to tour India to convince the BCCI top brass and also offered to shift the series to a neutral venue, possibly Abu Dhabi or England, but after the Mumbai attacks, even that possibility had become non-existent.
"We'd written to the government about the tour and we've just got the letter from the government that in the present circumstances the tour is not possible", Shetty said.
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