PCB makes request to BCCI

NEW DELHI (Agencies) - While several Indian cricketers may have strong reservations against playing Pakistan on their soil, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) does not mind hosting India at a neutral venue. The Pakistan Cricket Board's Chief Operating Officer Subhan Ahmed said that modalities of the short series would hopefully be worked out in a meeting with BCCI officials in June. Subhan Ahmed revealed that the board has been in touch with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) over e-mail, according to a cricket website. We sent them an email and they replied but as they are busy with the Indian Premier League currently, talks will begin after the IPL is over, Subhan was quoted as saying. While recent reports in the Indian media suggested a bilateral series could be planned soon, the International Cricket Councils Future Tours Programme (FTP) shows there is no window for either team to play a full-fledged series before early 2012. Subhan admitted that due to the tight international schedule of the Indian team, it would be quite a task to squeeze out a week or a 10-day period for the series. "It is not possible to play a full Test series this year that is obvious to us. But we are definitely keen on at least having a three match or five match one-day series sometime this year in Pakistan or at a neutral venue to kick off the revival process," he said. India is scheduled to tour the West Indies for four Tests and five ODIs, followed by a long tour of England in July-August. England will then come to India for a one-day series in November and West Indies will follow for a three-Test and five ODI series. The Indians then travel to Australia for a high-profile series in December-January. Pakistan is due to tour India in March-April 2012 for a full Test series under the ICC's Future Tours Program but the PCB is keen to have the bilateral series before that. "Our idea is that if the Indian Board agrees to the short series this year and than agrees to play the Tests of that 2009 tour at some other time then the 2012 tour would be viewed as a new series," he said. Subhan also said it was a wrong impression that Sri Lanka had refused to tour Pakistan later in the year for their full series. "The factual position is that we have sent them a proposal to play some matches in Pakistan and we are awaiting their response," he added.

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