Pakistan Cricket Board Chair Shahryar Khan said on Wednesday that India "will not play a bilateral series with us," according to NDTV SPORTS. The former world champions were scheduled to play in Sri Lanka later this month. There was an "air of expectation for the series to go ahead after a meeting of foreign ministers" -- Sushma Swaraj and Sartaj Aziz -- in Islamabad on Tuesday. Fans wanted cricket to "heal souring political relations" between the neighbors. India's decision not to play the series "will come as a blow" for the PCB. Pakistan's "cricket-loving" PM Nawaz Sharif had cleared the tour last month but the Board of Control for Cricket in India "did not get Delhi's approval" (NDTV SPORTS, 12/9). GULF NEWS reported the suspense over the proposed short bilateral cricket series between India and Pakistan at the end of this month continued with a BCCI senior official "questioning the wisdom of resuming cricketing ties with the ongoing tension at a border shared by the two countries." Earlier in the day, media reports "suggested the likelihood" of a short series between the neighbors from Dec. 24 to Jan. 5 but "only if the much-anticipated series was to get the green signal from the Indian government this week." However, BCCI Secretary Anurag Thakur, an "influential member" of parliament of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, struck a "discordant note" when he said, "We cannot play cricket with Pakistan when people are dying [at] the border" (GULF NEWS, 12/9). The PTI reported Khan has said that it is "now too late for a bilateral series between India and Pakistan" and that the PCB would now be looking at its "legal position" on the matter. Initial TV reports said that there is "no mention of cricket in the joint statement released by India and Pakistan" after the "high profile meet" between ministers Swaraj and Sharif (PTI, 12/9).
