KARACHI, 26 December 2003 — The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has told the Pakistan Cricket Board that it is not receptive to the idea of playing seven One-day Internationals on its forthcoming tour of Pakistan. A source in the PCB confirmed that chief executive Rameez Raja had had a discussion with BCCI secretary S.K. Nair this week in which the proposed itinerary for the Indians tour was discussed.
“The Indians have suggested a series of five One-day Internationals and three Tests in March-April,” the source said.
“The Indian official told Rameez that since the Indian team would be returning home after a long and tough tour of Australia, they were more interested in making it a series of five ODIs and three Tests.” Pakistan has sent a tentative itinerary to the BCCI for approval suggesting they play seven One-Dayers and three Tests between February-April.
The source said S.K. Nair had also suggested that instead of touring from Feb 26 to April 15, India would like to tour Pakistan from first week of March to early April. The BCCI has yet to officially respond to the itinerary but the source said that Rameez and Nair had discussed a lot of other organizational details of the series, the first full series between the two countries in Pakistan since 1989.
India last toured Pakistan in 1989 for a full Test series although in 1997 the Indians played three One-Dayers in Karachi, Hyderabad and Lahore.
Pakistan, meanwhile, has told the Indians that if the itinerary is cut down to five One-Dayers and three Tests than Pakistan will play a similar number of matches when they tour India in 2006.
However Indian board official did not raise objections to any venues in Pakistan which means that Karachi and Peshawar are certain to host matches.
