After numerous rejections and cold responses from BCCI, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) managing director Wasim Khan is looking forward to creating a scenario where India themselves ask Pakistan to resume cricketing ties. He also added that Pakistan needs to move forward as they could not wait forever to play arch-rivals India. Wasim is confident that the resumption of India-Pakistan bilateral cricket will not happen anytime soon but he has suggested a change in strategy to get the two nations playing.
As per the quotes in ESPNCricinfo, Wasim said, “It’s a massive challenge and I don’t think we’re going to see any solutions anytime soon. But, we are trying and [PCB chairman] Ehsan Mani is trying hard to get them to the table and get things moving. We keep on asking them to play us but let’s create a situation where they ask us to play. I think we need to do that. It’s sad that we are not playing against them but life continues. We can’t wait forever to play India. Our focus is to develop Pakistan cricket and get our team and players a lot of success at the international level.”
The PCB had filed a complaint against the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for not playing the bilateral series between 2015 and 2023 despite signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). However, the International Cricket Council (ICC) had, dismissed the case.
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Ehsan Mani said that there is no point engaging with India on the matter till the general elections. He added that if Pakistan succeeded in registering their name among top three cricket teams of the world then India would come on their own to play against them.
Mani explained, “Until it’s not done (elections in India), there is no point in engaging them at this stage because we have to start over with new people in the BCCI. But our relations with the Indian board are very good and we have mutual respect but we won’t be imploring them to play us. I get a lot of messages from Indian journalists and the public about their wish to play against Pakistan. Unfortunately, politics sneaks in which I don’t believe sports should ever be mixed up with. But it happens in our environment, especially in India it happens a lot. But I understand when they are done with elections their attitude will get right too.”
India and Pakistan have not played any bilateral series since January 2013. However, both the teams have been locking horns with each other several times in the multilateral events.
