Sports Minister Vijay Goel rules out possibility of India-Pakistan series

What’s the Story?

In what seems to be a never-ending issue, India’s sports minister Vijay Goel ruled out the possibility of a bilateral series between India and Pakistan in the near future. Goel felt that as long as the terrorism prevails, India will not tour Pakistan and vice-versa.

"India and Pakistan can't play bilateral series till the terror from Pakistan remains," Goel told reporters.

"BCCI should speak to the government before giving any proposal to Pakistan. I have made it clear that bilateral cricket with Pakistan is not possible till the time there is cross-border terror. We have, however, no say on multilateral events,” he continued.

In case you didn’t know...

About a week ago, a Pakistani official had said that India and Pakistan would hold talks during the ICC Champions Trophy regarding conducting a bilateral series in the near future.

On May 3, 2017, the Pakistan Cricket Board had even sent a legal notice to the BCCI seeking compensation for the Memorandum of Understanding which was signed in 2014 which stated that the two sides would play six tournaments between 2015 and 2023.

As far as the terrorism goes, there has been a lot of unrest between the two nations off-late near the border with a lot of soldiers being martyred in the process.

The Details:

BCCI joint secretary Amitabh Chaudhary went on to say that he would explain the severity of the matter to the PCB officials. Engaging in a bilateral series at this stage would require government permission which is something that is impossible.

Chaudhary thus expects the PCB to withdraw their legal notice and if they do not, he stated that BCCI would not pay any money to PCB.

What’s next?

India will take on Pakistan in their first match at the ICC Champions Trophy in Birmingham on June 4.

Author’s Take

With the amount of unrest between the nations, cricket should probably take a back step until the political issues seem to be resolved. The two sides will continue to play in major ICC tournaments for the time being.

As far as the compensation for the MoU is concerned, the PCB should withdraw their notice as they could not possibly expect BCCI to give them any money given the current scenario and the fact that the government would not allow it.