BCCI president Roger Binny and vice-president Rajeev Shukla recently returned to India via the Attari-Wagah border from Pakistan after attending a couple of Asia Cup matches on an invitation from the Pakistan Cricket Board. After coming back to India, Binny offered a positive update when quizzed about the possibility of resumption of bilateral cricket series between the two neighbours.
The 1983 ODI World Cup winner said that he was hopeful that bilateral cricket can resume between India and Pakistan who face each other only in Asia Cup and ICC events in recent years.
Binny did insist however that BCCI alone cannot resolve the matter, it will also need intervention from the governments of both nations.
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“BCCI can’t say. It is a government issue, and they will have to take a call. We need to wait and see. And hopefully, it will happen because the (ODI) World Cup is coming up, Pakistan team will be in India to play,” Binny told PTI on Wednesday upon his return from Pakistan. It was the first time in 17 years, that BCCI officials travelled across the border.
Binny and Shukla were seen attending the clash between Pakistan and Bangladesh at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore wherein the hosts registered a convincing 7-wicket win. In the meantime, India and Pakistan are set to meet once again in the Asia Cup 2023, but this time it will be in Colombo during the Super 4 clash.
The last time India and Pakistan faced off each other in bilateral cricket was back in 2006, India last visited Pakistan in 2008, during the Asia Cup, and Pakistan’s last trip across the border was during the 2016 T20 World Cup.
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For more than a decade now, the two nations have only met in Asia Cup and ICC events, and Binny is hopeful that cricket can be the method to cater peace between the two neighbours.
“Cricket has always been an important medium even before. Take the 2004 tour, for example; the atmosphere that was created resulted in a great friendship and trade delegations. The shopkeepers were not even taking money from people, that was a great atmosphere,” added the BCCI supremo.
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