Pakistan confirms 'binding' agreement with India for six cricket series

Pakistan Thursday confirmed a "binding agreement" with India for six cricket series in the next eight years, the first of which will be played next year.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said the series were agreed in principle in April, but these were turned into a binding agreement on the sidelines of an International Cricket Council (ICC) meeting in Melbourne on Thursday.

"India has officially turned into (a) binding agreement the Memorandum of Understanding signed earlier this year with regard to six rubbers between the two nations, four of these to be hosted by the PCB in the United Arab Emirates or Pakistan with mutual consent," the PCB said in a statement.

India suspended all bilateral series with Pakistan in the wake of 2008 terrorist attacks on Mumbai, which New Delhi blamed on militants based across the border.

The Pakistan team did tour India for a short limited over series in December 2012-January 2013 but a full series was not agreed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

Pakistan have not hosted any international cricket since terrorist attacks on the Sri Lankan team bus in March 2009.

When the series goes ahead it will mark the biggest success for Pakistan in recent years after a prolonged isolation at the international level due to security fears.

The cricket matches between Pakistan and India are widely seen as the most sought after in cricket globally, with billions watching them on television around the world.

No India walkout threat to ICC - Srinivasan

New ICC chairman N. Srinivasan on Thursday denied reports that India's all-powerful cricket board had threatened to pull out of the global body.

The Indian cricket chief has been put in charge of the International Cricket Council amid changes to its governance that have handed the majority of power and revenues to the sport's "big three" nations - India, Australia and England.

Earlier this month Sanjay Patel, secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), was quoted as saying India had considered quitting the ICC unless it received a greater share of the global game's revenues.

But asked if the reported threat to walk away from the ICC had played a driving force in the development of the "Big Three" proposals, Srinivasan said that was an "incorrect assessment".

"India has at all times been very supportive of the ICC," he told a news conference during the ICC annual conference in Melbourne.

"We may not always agree. But that doesn't mean that one walks away.

"We (India) have a view. We always felt we had a right to express our view.

"That doesn't mean at any time we would have even dreamt of walking away from the ICC."

Patel had reportedly said the BCCI demanded a meeting with the ICC at its Dubai headquarters after commissioning a survey which showed India generated more than 70 per cent of the game's revenues.

"We told them that if India is not getting its proper due and importance then India might be forced to form a second ICC of its own," Patel said in speech in Hyderabad, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.
 

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