Should BCCI and PCB go ahead with the proposed Indo-Pak series in December, like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are being considered as venues to host the matches.
Since the Indian board is opposed to the idea of playing in UAE and Pakistan government has cited security concerns to prohibit its cricket team from playing in India, BCCI officials in their recent meetings have discussed holding the series in the neighboring countries.
Should Shashank Manohar could discuss this matter with Pakistani counterpart Shaharyar Khan in order to break the impasse.
“The only glitch in this proposal is that if the series happens in one of these countries, UAE could get offended. Otherwise, the option of playing the series is certainly on BCCI’s mind,” a source close to the development said.
Though refuted strongly by Pakistan coach Waqar Younis, Daily Mail alleged that Pakistan’s six-wicket defeat in the match is being investigated by ICC’s Anti-Corruption Unit over unusual patterns of betting.
The newspaper claimed investigators were tipped off before the match that Pakistan would underperform in the game and that three run-outs, casual dismissals of batsmen and sloppy fielding were suspicious.
Pakistan were bowled out for 208 on a flat pitch, with skipper Azhar Ali, Mohammad Rizwan and Shoaib Malik run out. England chased down the target after being 93 for 4 at one stage to take a 2-1 lead.
Former England captain’s Vaughan’s tweets then added fuel to the ‘fixing’ fire.
“They must think we are stupid,” he tweeted. “3 run outs and a few iffy shots for Pakistan…. Never seen that before …. !!”
Vaughan later took off the tweets from his timeline.
While the truth behind these allegations is open to investigation, the incident has seriously hurt outside chance of reviving Indo-Pak cricket.
The two boards – PCB and BCCI – are trying to overcome the roadblocks for first of the six series the two boards have committed each other over an eight-year period by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
The first of those series, scheduled for December, is already fighting geographical and broadcast issues with both the boards disagreeing on the venue and having separate broadcast deals for their home series. That’s apart from the political unrest that has the biggest say with both the governments involved.
On that note, this fixing menace raising its ugly head is not something PCB would have wanted, that too at a stage when the Manohar-led BCCI is doing everything it can to clean its image.
