ECB offers to be ‘neutral venue’ for IND-PAK

If India and Pakistan plan to play a bilateral Test series, the England and Wales Cricket Board has made an informal offer to serve as hosts. However, sources within the BCCI stated that the likelihood of this happening in the near future is “next to nil.”

 “Martin Darlow, the deputy chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, has held talks with the Pakistan Cricket Board during the current Twenty20 series and offered England’s grounds as venues for ideally a three-match Test series in future.”

The UK daily ‘Telegraph’ reported

Even though the ECB made the offer for its own commercial gain, the BCCI’s top brass laughed them off and said that no such opportunities might exist for at least a few years.

“Firstly, ECB spoke to PCB about an Indo-Pak series and that’s a bit weird. In any case, a series against Pakistan is not something that the BCCI will decide but it is the decision of the government. As of now, the stance remains the same. We only play Pakistan at multi-team events,”

a senior BCCI official privy to India’s position told PTI on Tuesday.

The last bilateral white-ball match between India and Pakistan was in 2012 in India, and the last Test match was in 2007. Regardless of whether it is played at home, away, or a neutral venue, the BCCI says “no” because of the tense political relations between the neighbours.

The newspaper explains precisely why the “generous offer” was made.

It stated that the matches would draw large crowds in the UK, which has a large population of south Asian expats.

“The matches attract huge sponsorship revenue and television audiences.” However, the paper made it clear that even “PCB is not keen on playing India at neutral venue but are grateful for the ECB’s offer, which shows the growing relationship between the two boards.” 

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It stated that if they happen to play at a neutral venue, it would be a “retrograde step in their eyes” since the major nations have begun touring Pakistan once more.