Will the India-Pakistan series happen in December?
In December this year the India-Pakistan
cricket series is planned to take place, but the tension between the rival countries has put a spanner in the works. Now it remains to be seen if a decision
on where the series will be played can be reached within a month, or if the whole
event will have to be called off.
The past
couple of months the planned bilateral series has run into some trouble due to
political tensions between the two competing countries. The main issue is where
the series will take place, where ‘Hindustan’ opposes to play anywhere but in
India even though it is Pakistan’s turn to host the series. The Indian Cricket
board BCCI claims they:
·
Cannot
play in Pakistan for safety reasons and threat of terror attacks;
·
Nor
can they play on neutral ground in UAE (for reasons yet unknown).
Pakistan,
who’s hosting the event, is reluctant to play a third home series on away
ground. They already did in 2007 and 2012 on Indian soil. The Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Shahryar Khan was quoted saying “It is our series and we will play at
our home venue, which is the UAE."
India has yet not responded to why they
can’t play in the UAE, but the BCCI president Shashank
Manohar made a clear statement in an interview with The Hindu that they are
committed to playing Pakistan in December. He continued: “since it's not possible to play them in Pakistan or
the UAE, we have to look at playing the series in Northern India in
December."
With India’s cricket
legacy and political power, you’re better off wasting your money on online bingo than betting
on this series to be played anywhere else but in India.
The controversial
matter has now gone up all the way to Indian government level, where BCCI
awaits advice on what to do. Whether or not the cricket boards of both countries will reach
an agreement is still uncertain. All the while Pakistan has made their stance
clear, they won’t host on away soil. Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Shaharyar
Khan also revealed that Pakistan will boycott the World Twenty20 in India next
year if the December series doesn’t go through.
The eloquent brawl
between the arch rivals continues and the future of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by both as of
last year, could be in the danger zone.
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