Indo-Pak bilateral series in 2012 called off
Pakistan will not be touring India in 2012, as previously outlined in the Future Tours Programme but the Asia Cup 2012 will go ahead as scheduled, from March 12 to 22 in Dhaka, Bangladesh, The Asian Cricket Council has confirmed today. The decision was taken at the ACC's meeting in Singapore earlier this week; it also pitched a proposal by Pakistan to host the 2014 tournament, though full discussion and satisfaction with security and other issues is still pending.
"It was agreed that the Asia Cup 2012 would go ahead on the proposed dates," Subhan Ahmed, the PCB chief operating officer, told cricinfo. "There was discussion of the ACC postponing the Asia Cup if both India and Pakistan agreed to play their series within that slot but that idea has faded out for many reasons."
Though the PCB was hoping to get some confirmation on the resumption of bilateral series between India and Pakistan from the BCCI at the meeting, Ahmed said that the BCCI representative, Ratnakar Shetty, was unable to give any assurance in the absence of N Srinivasan, the president of the Indian board.
"Pakistan-India series was not on the agenda at the ACC meeting but we were looking forward to Srinivasan coming across to discuss it," Ahmed said. "We had an ideal platform here to talk with our India counterpart but he [Srinivasan] didn't attend the meeting. He [Shetty] was not in a position to talk on it. So I don't think India and Pakistan could play each other in a full series next year but they will meet in the Asia Cup."
Zaka Ashraf, the PCB chairman, was also in Singapore. He had to postpone his trip to Chennai in the first week of December to talk to Srinavasan on the interests of cricketing between both the nations because of the unexpected illness of Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari, also the PCB's chief patron.
Ahmed said that the other ACC members showed their support when Pakistan proposed to host the Asia Cup in 2014 and understood how essential the hosting of the event was for the country but asked the PCB to satisfy them on security concerns. "Our request has been endorsed and was not turned down. They want a full discussion on the precautionary steps that the PCB will take to ensure security. We obviously assured them the best and the case has been deferred until next meeting." he said.
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