No India-Pakistan series in near future, says BCCI

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) CEO Rahul Johri has quashed any speculations of India and Pakistan bilateral series in the near future. Asian Cricket Council meeting in Colombo recently took place and it was expected that Indo-Pak series will be the talking point between the two cricketing boards. The BCCI had earlier made it clear that India will not face Pakistan in a bilateral series due to political tensions between the two neigbouring countries.
Despite that, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had expressed their interest in playing against India time and again. The PCB often cited the revenue loss as the primary reason for hosting India at neutral venues. While it was clear that the bilateral series is just not possible at this time around, there were rumors about the two teams meeting in a tri-series or a quadrangular series. Rahul Johri and the BCCI President Anurag Thakur attended the meeting.
In a conversation with leading newspaper Hindustan Times, Johri cleared that there was no such discussion in the meeting. “There was no discussion on that (India-Pakistan match),” he said. He further added that the agenda of the meeting was to discuss the prospects of the Asia Cup 2018. (Also read: BCCI chief Anurag Thakur credits Rahul Dravid for Karun Nair’s historic feat)
“The discussion took place on how to make the next Asia Cup (in 2018) bigger. There is some time to go for it though. All the Boards CEOs will come back with their plans on how to increase revenue, potential of the Asia Cup and of the ACC overall. All four (CEOs) will work together. (Pakistan Cricket Board’s CEO) Subhan (Ahmad) will lead it,” he added.
In the recent times, the Indian cricket board has been facing the heat of the ICC and also the Supreme Court. Johri exclaimed that the participating boards were concerned about the fate of the richest cricket board in the world. (Also read: Indore to host Ranji Trophy final from January 10 to 14)
“There was a lot of concern shown by the ACC boards about the BCCI. One of the things they reacted to was the treatment meted to the BCCI by the ICC. The ACC members were keen that the BCCI’s interest should not be harmed. If the BCCI is affected, global cricket is affected. Everybody is dependent on India,” he conceded.