M A I N   N E W S

India, Pak to resume cricket series
Ajay Banerjee
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 13
Even as November 2008 Mumbai attack suspects Tahhawur Rana and David Coleman Headley have named Pakistan’s ISI for having plotted the attack, India has decided to take forward Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s “cricket diplomacy” initiative.

As a follow up to the Mohali round of cricket diplomacy between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani, India has decided in principle to resume bilateral cricket ties with Pakistan. India had suspended all sporting ties with Pakistan following the Mumbai attacks in which 176 persons lost their lives.

The two cricket teams have not played a bilateral series since December 2007 when Pakistan team visited India for a series comprising three Tests and five ODIs. The last time an Indian cricket team visited Pakistan was in 2006 when Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid had piled on a record 410-run opening stand in the Lahore Test.

Government sources today said the timing of the visit, the venues of the matches and other logistical issues would be worked out by the cricket boards of the two countries.

Sources said if everything goes according to the plans, Indian cricket team will visit Pakistan first and the cricket team of that country will pay a return visit. There is no slot available for the Indian team to visit Pakistan in the immediate future.

According to the future tour schedule prepared by the International Cricket Council, Pakistan should visit India for a series having three Tests and five ODIs in March 2012. However, India could opt to use this window to send its team to Pakistan ending the global cricket boycott of Pakistan.

The last cricket team to visit Pakistan was Sri Lanka in February 2009. The team bus was attacked by militants forcing the Sri Lankans to return home abruptly.

Both Headley and Rana, in their testimony to US interrogators, have accepted working at the behest of the ISI and the Pakistan government, reports said.

Asked if the revelation will change the Indian government’s stand, Krishna said the two issues were different. “Peace talks will go on, cricket matches will go on and simultaneously our relentless efforts will continue to bring to justice all those responsible for the heinous crime against India in Mumbai,” Krishna said.

India will take up the issue of Rana and Headley’s confession with the Pakistan government. “We will certainly take it up. We are in constant touch with the Pakistan government through our diplomatic channels,” he said.

The Sharm-el-Sheikh (Egypt) declaration signed in 2009 delinked peace talks between the two countries and the action taken against terrorism.