No hasty decision on Pak Test

India will not be pushed by cricket officials into a hasty decision about its national team's participation in a Test match in Pakistan in September, Sports Minister Uma Bharti said on Monday.

Cricket relations between the south Asian neighbours have been rocky since the Indian government scrapped a proposed Test tour of Pakistan late last year and banned all bilateral cricket between India and Pakistan.

Asian cricket officials said last week they would give India until Thursday to decide before they assumed it had withdrawn from the Asian Test championship.

But Uma Bharti told reporters the government would not come under any pressure since travelling to Pakistan for cricket is a major foreign policy matter.

"Our country's foreign policy is far more important than sports. There can be no deadlines or pressure tactics there," Bharti said.

"It is a big decision that will not be taken in haste just because people have given us a deadline," she added.

FINANCIAL RETURNS

Asian cricket officials have said the tournament, which begins with Pakistan hosting a Test against Bangladesh next week, will go on even if India pulls out.

But they are concerned because cricket-crazy India's pulling out may have a big effect on the tournament's financial returns.

"If India does not play, the attraction will be less...but cricket must go on," Jagmohan Dalmiya, chairman of the Asian Cricket Foundation, had said last week.

The ACF implements the programmes of the Asian Cricket Council, which is the game's official Asian body.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India asked the sports ministry for permission to play in the September Test. The ministry is to refer the matter to India's foreign office.

The Indian government had not allowed the national team to play in a one-day tournament also involving Pakistan at Sharjah in April.

Pakistan had retaliated by saying they would sever all cricketing ties with India but softened their stand after the BCCI agreed to the September Test.

A.C. Muthiah, president of the BCCI, said he had agreed to the match since the Asian Test championship is a multilateral tournament also involving Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Mail Cricket Editor