BCCI to obey government decision

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said on Wednesday they would abide by the government's decision not to allow the national team play in a proposed Asian Test championship match in Pakistan next month.

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee took the decision at a high-level meeting also involving the foreign and home ministers late on Tuesday, government sources said.

"We haven't received anything in writing so far. But what can we say, whatever they say we will do," Jaywant Lele, secretary of the BCCI, said from Baroda.

Relations between the two countries have been strained over the five-decade-old dispute over the Himalayan region of Kashmir.

Cricket ties between the neighbours have been rocky since the Indian government cancelled a proposed Test tour of Pakistan late last year and banned all bilateral cricket between the two countries.

Asian cricket officials said last week they would give India until Thursday to decide before they assumed it had withdrawn from the Asian Test championship.

The tournament starts next week with Pakistan hosting Bangladesh. Sri Lanka are also taking part.

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

Pakistan 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, had earlier said he agreed to the match since the Asian Test championship was a multilateral tournament.

Mail Cricket Editor