According to BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur “cricket and terrorism” cannot go hand-in-hand as Pakistan is not serious about dismantling terror network.
Political tension between India and Pakistan is taking a heavy toll on cricketing ties between both the nations. Even though experts say that cricket should not suffer due to politics but the reverse is true. The Gurdaspur terror attack incident and the cancellation of Indo-Pakistan dialogue at NSA level has put question mark over the Pakistan’s home series against India. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Anurag Thakur said there will be no revival of cricketing relations between India and Pakistan if Islamabad harbours Dawood Ibrahim and continues dialogue with Hurriyat leaders.
“Dawood in Karachi. National Security Agency (NSA) wants to meet separatists here. Are you really serious about peace and you expect we’ll play cricket with you?” Thakur said in a twitter message.
Thakur’s statement comes a day after the scheduled talks between the national security advisers (NSAs) of the two neighbours were called off.
Earlier this week, Thakur had cited firing altercations between Pakistan and India along the Line of Control and Working Boundary as the reason for not playing with Pakistan, saying “cricket and terrorism” cannot go hand-in-hand.
“Peace on the borders is essential for a cricket match between India and Pakistan and no cricket match is possible under the shadow of unprovoked firing and bombardment at the border,” said Thakur.
“On one hand there is a rise in terrorist activity from Pakistan. On the other, you can’t expect to play a cricket series with Pakistan. For me, the safety and security of my countrymen is more important than a cricket series” he said.
“This is not the way to go ahead. I was never against the dialogue process. At the same time, if you do not have good relations, you can’t have good cricket” he added.
According to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by both the nations, India was expected to play an away series against Pakistan in UAE.
PCB has time and again offered to keep politics and cricket aside and even some players have echoed the board’s sentiments. Test captain Misbahul Haq said Pakistan and India should be playing against each other in bilateral series regularly and playing cricket should not be linked to the overall political relations between the two nations.
However, the BCCI has always left matters to be handled by their government.
Since 2007 no cricket series between Pakistan and India could be possible due to tension over the LOC. Pakistan did play two T20 and 3 ODI’s in 2012-13 with India on the Indian grounds but it didn’t bring financial benefit to PCB.
PCB was trying its level best to hold a complete series with India in December 2015 in order to fill its bags and negotiations were going on between the boards of two countries from the last few months. Sheharyar Khan himself went to New Delhi and signed a MOU as well in this regard but this didn’t work even.
Pakistani Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq had expressed a desire to retire from the game after taking on India for one last time.
“If the series against India happens, I want to play that series and probably retire from international cricket. So the India series can be my last one,” Misbah said.
On Saturday, a newspaper and channel came out with proofs to show that Pakistan is providing a haven for Dawood, the mastermind of the 1993 Mumbai blasts.
Meanwhile a telephone bill and a passport form the documentary evidence which indicate that Dawood Ibrahim and his family are in Pakistan’s port city of Karachi.
Indian security agencies are said to be in possession of a telephone bill issued in the name of Mehjabeen Shaikh, Dawood’s wife. The bill mentions D-13, Block 4, Karachi Development Authority, Sch 5, Clifton, as the address, and is issued by the Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited.
The passport has a recent image of Dawood, which shows him now to be clean shaven and with a receding hairline. He is said to be 59 years old now.
