India, Pak to discuss resumption of cricket ties

A top Indian sports official said on Monday he would discuss resuming cricketing ties with neighbouring Pakistan, hit by political and military tensions, during a regional meeting in Islamabad later this week.

Indian Olympic Association president Suresh Kalmadi said he has received positive signals from authorities to use a meeting on the South Asian Federation Games on Saturday to talk to Pakistani cricket officials.

"The idea is to start sporting ties again through Olympic sports," he said.. "We are also looking at bilateral exchanges in hockey, tennis and athletics," he added.

Kalmadi will take part in an SAF Games committee meeting to discuss fresh dates for the regional games, put off from October last year because of the security situation in Afghanistan.

Kalmadi, a former Union minister and currently a Congress Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament, said Union Sports Minister Uma Bharti has asked him to start a dialogue on resuming normal sporting ties, including cricket.

India and Pakistan ended a near 13-year break in Test ties when Pakistan travelled to India for a two-game series in 1999, a few months before an undeclared war in northern Kashmir strained Indo-Pakistani relations further.

The two sides have not met since an Asian one-day tournament in Dhaka in April-May 2000. The Indian government has refused permission for any bilateral matches against Pakistan until the tension eases.

The government has said cricket, which has a huge following in both countries, arouses national sentiments and inflamed passions when India play Pakistan, and wants to avoid it.

India pulled out of its first Test tour of Pakistan in almost 12 years in 2000 and then refused to travel for the Asian Test Championship game last year.

Kalmadi said: "Let us break the ice, through sports political ties can also improve."

The Pakistan Cricket Board said last week it would demand compensation if the International Cricket Council failes to persuade India to end the cricketing boycott.

The PCB chairman Lt. General Tauqir Zia said his board would not be able to endorse the ICC's 10-year Test programme unless India agreed to play Pakistan.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India has said it wants ICC to make a provision for government clearance in the programme.

"We have taken a position that there should be a provision on force majeure that should include permission from the government," BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya said.

Kalmadi said he had spoken to Dalmiya and would also meet the sports minister before leaving for Pakistan.

Mail Cricket Editor