No rethink on Pak tour, says government

The Government of India on Tuesday dismissed speculation about a rethink on the India-Pakistan cricket series, asserting there is no change in its decision to veto the Indian team's tour to Pakistan, slated to take place from January.

"There is no change in the announcement made earlier," a foreign office spokesman told reporters in response to a question.

The government had stated that Pakistan's hostile propaganda and constant calls for 'jehad' against India by the Establishment and extremist groups has created an environment, making an Indian cricket team's tour of that country "inappropriate".

India had asked Pakistan to create a conducive climate, which would enable it to have the confidence that the security and welfare of its team would be ensured, and that a tour would serve positive purposes.

Earlier, former Board of Control for Cricket in India chief Raj Singh Dungarpur told reporters soon after returning from Lahore that there was hope for revival of the Indo-Pak cricket series.

Dungarpur, who returned after attending ICC's marketing and finance committee meeting, said he had a talk with foreign secretary Lalit Mansingh who assured him that the government decision was not an end of the bilateral cricket series.

"We have not slammed the door on Pakistan for ever," Dungarpur quoted Mansingh as saying.

Dungarpur, who was talking to media persons at the Ferozeshah Kotla in Delhi, refused to comment on the decision to cancel the tour.

"It is the paramount prerogative of the Government of India whether to allow such tours or not. It is not my desire to contest or comment on the decision to cancel the tour," he said.

Dungarpur, who felt the Indo-Pak series should be encouraged with greater intensity than the Ashes, said he would be meeting External Affairs minister Jaswant Singh in this regard.

He said his trip to Pakistan was not meant to be a "PR exercise" for the BCCI which had come in for a lot of flak from the PCB and also ICC in the wake of the decision, but was purely an official one.

"I went to Pakistan after 16 years and I was greeted with warmth and affection, including from Pakistan board chairman and the media. But there was deep-seated resentment and disappointment all over... it was as if there had been a death in the cricketing family," Dungarpur added.

Mail Cricket Editor