BCCI chief Sourav Ganguly made a statement recently on whether India and Pakistan would play a bilateral cricket series soon. Ganguly made the comment at the 40th Sharjah International Book Fair.
Sourav Ganguly said, “This is not in the hands of the boards. At world tournaments, the two teams do play each other. Bilateral cricket has been stopped for years and this is something that the respective governments have to work on. This is not in Rameez’s hands, nor mine.”
Earlier, PCB chief Rameez Raja had said, “I met with BCCI President Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah on the sidelines of the ACC meetings. We need to create a cricketing bond, while I have also believed that politics should stay away from sport as much as possible and this has always been our stance.”
India and Pakistan only play in ICC tournaments since bilateral cricket between the two countries was stopped due to state-sponsored terrorism against India. While some want the cricketing ties to resume, the national mood is not in favour of it.
When Pakistan defeated India for the first time in a World Cup event in the recently concluded T20 World Cup, there were several hateful remarks that were made which make the resumption of cricket more difficult. One Pakistani Minister called it the victory of the Muslim World while former cricketer Waqar Younis said that the best part about the victory was watching Pakistani opener Mohammad Rizwan perform Namaz in front of Hindus.
Combined with the fact that Pakistan sponsored terrorism continues to claim lives to this day in Jammu and Kashmir, it is unlikely that the Government of India would wish for cricket to resume between the two countries.
