NEW DELHI: India’s cricket board said yesterday it has secured government clearance to host Pakistan for a short tour later this year.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India has invited Pakistan to play three one-dayers and two Twenty20 matches in December-January, the first bilateral contests between the arch-rivals in five years.
“We have discussed all security aspects (and) the tour is on,” board spokesman Rajiv Shukla told reporters after a meeting between its officials and Indian Home Secretary R K Singh in New Delhi.
A report by the Press Trust of India said the venues for the ODI games would most likely be Chennai, Kolkata and New Delhi while the Twenty20 matches would take place in Bangalore and Ahmedabad.
The rivals have not played a series since Pakistan’s tour of India in 2007, after cricket ties were snapped following the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai by militants from Pakistan.
Cricket ties have been the subject of discussions between the governments of both nuclear-armed countries. They have been holding regular meetings in a bid to improve relations and eventually thrash out a peace agreement.
The countries -- where cricket is hugely popular -- have fought three wars since independence in 1947.
The Indian and Pakistani cricket teams have only met in international tournaments since 2007.
They clashed in the ODI World Cup semi-final in the northern Indian town of Mohali last year, a match that was attended by both countries’ prime ministers.
Meanwhile in Mumbai, paceman Steven Finn limped off the field with a thigh injury as England’s bowlers struggled on the opening day of their Indian tour in Mumbai yesterday.
The tourists were kept on the field for the entire first day’s play as India ‘A’, lifted by Manoj Tiwary’s impressive 93, scored 369-9 in the three-day practice match at the Brabourne stadium.
The lanky Finn, regarded as a certainty for the four-Test series starting in Ahmedabad on November 15, bowled four overs within the first hour before being confined to the dressing room for the rest of the day.
Finn is expected to have a scan to determine the cause of the discomfort in his right leg, but his absence from the field cost the tourists dearly.
Brief scores:
India ‘A’ 1st innings: 369-9 (Abhinav Mukund 73, Yuvraj Singh 59, Manoj Tiwary 93, Irfan Pathan 46, Graeme Swann 3-90, Tim Bresnan 3-59)
Agencies
