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Cricketing ties with Pakistan will take time: Shukla

Principal Correspondent

India has a busy international schedule in the coming few months

Mohali: Resuming cricketing ties with Pakistan will take time and will primarily depend on the Indian government’s stance, said Rajeev Shukla here on Monday.

The chairman of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) media and finance committee added that matches against Pakistan was not possible for the next six to seven months due to the Indian team’s packed schedule.

Shukla said Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Ijaz Butt had met BCCI President Shashank Manohar.

Busy schedule

“We explained to the PCB chairman that India has a busy international schedule in the coming few months and there is no space in the calendar to play Pakistan.

“We are playing against Australia now and after that we will play Sri Lanka. We will then take on South Africa followed by the Indian Premier League and the World Twenty20, so there is no free space for the Indian team,” Shukla said.

Shukla said the board officials of the two countries would meet after eight months to discuss the possibility of reviving cricketing ties.

“But it would depend on how the relations between the two countries are at that moment and from there we will take it forward.

Officials meet

“Hopefully the relations remain cordial and may be the government will also give us permission. But for now there is no possibility of playing against Pakistan,” Shukla said after Ijaz Butt met the BCCI officials in a bid to break the stalemate following the terror strikes in Mumbai last year.

The recent statements of Shashi Tharoor, Minister of State for External Affairs, about the possibility of playing against Pakistan at neutral venues, has also raised hopes about resuming the old rivalry but as Shukla pointed out, it will take some time.

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