The England and Wales Cricket Board have made a proposal to the Pakistan Cricket Board to be a neutral venue for India vs Pakistan Tests, as first reported by The Telegraph.
ECB’s deputy chair Martin Barlow, who has been in Pakistan for England’s ongoing seven-match T20I series, is said to have put forward the idea to his Pakistani counterpart Ramiz Raja during the tour. The proposal has been viewed as an indication of ECB’s attempt to rebuild its relationships with the PCB, after the board had withdrawn from a two-match Test series in Pakistan last year at the very last minute.
As per reports, the PCB is unlikely to take up the offer, given the international cricket’s ascent in Pakistan in recent years. Pakistan have taken giant strides in ensuring the game’s return to the country after having hosted its “home games” in the UAE for a number of years and have also been granted the rights to host the 2025 edition of the ICC Men’s Champions Trophy.
It will be the first global tournament that Pakistan will host since the 2009 attack on the Sri Lanka national cricket team. The PCB feels that accepting ECB’s offer and moving its game to neutral venues would undermine some of their progress in recent times.
Meanwhile, the Board of Control for Cricket in India, too, are firm of playing Pakistan only in multi-nation tournaments.
“Firstly, ECB spoke to PCB about an Indo-Pak series and that’s a bit weird. In any case, a series against Pakistan is not something that the BCCI will decide but it is the decision of the government. As of now, the stance remains the same. We only play Pakistan at multi-team events,”
a senior BCCI official privy to India’s position told PTI on Tuesday.
India and Pakistan last played bilateral series in 2012-13, when Pakistan toured India for a two-match T20I series, which was drawn at 1-1, and three ODIs, which the visitors took 2-1. The two teams have only faced off in multi-nation tournaments since. The last time the subcontinent rivals played each other in Tests was during Pakistan’s tour of India in November-December 2007 when India had won the three-match series 1-0 under the then newly appointed Test captain Anil Kumble.
The PCB has hosted two Tests in England before – against Australia in 2010 – with Lord’s and Headingley being the two venues. However, the relation between the two boards was affected to a great extent following the spot-fixing episode that followed in the subsequent Test series between England and Pakistan.
Meanwhile, Moeen Ali, who is captaining England in the ongoing T20I series, which is currently tied at 2-2, welcomed the idea.
“That would be brilliant. It’s a shame that they don’t obviously play each other unless it’s a World Cup or an ICC event but they’re two great teams and two massive playing nations.
“With the viewing [figures] and all that, it would be one of the biggest games because it’s not been done for a very long time. It would be a great game because Pakistan have a really good bowling attack as well as India now, and India have a great Test side. It would be really good,”
Moeen said.
There is a great chance that India and Pakistan could face off in the World Test Championship 2023 final, which will be played at The Oval next year. India are placed fourth with a points percentage of 52.08 in the WTC 2023 table currently, followed by Pakistan at 51.85.
