No chance for Indo-Pak bilateral cricket at present: Shahryar Khan

Bengaluru, December 19: Shahryar Khan, who stepped down as the Pakistan Cricket Board chief, said the environment is not favourable to restart bilateral cricket between India and Pakistan.

"The real reason behind the absence of India and Pakistan bilateral series is political and has nothing to do with either PCB or BCCI. In the current political climate, I really do not see any way in the near future that both teams will be able to play each other.

"The fact is that we have always been willing to play India anywhere but it's been the Government of India who have forced the BCCI to refuse to play us and there is not much we can do about that. I don't see a bilateral series between India and Pakistan anytime in the near future," said Shahryar Khan as quoted by PakPassion.net.

Shahryar said the BCCI has been sincere in its efforts
to change the government stance but political reasons always took the front seat.

"I know for a fact that they tried to convince their Government and explained to them that there would be a loss of revenue for both India and Pakistan. However, the Government of India has stuck by its stand that unless the political climate improves, there can be no resumption of cricketing relations between both countries. They will simply not allow it.

"But, I am hopeful for the future and hope things can change but at this time, there is no chance of any India-Pakistan cricket contact in a bilateral context. We will continue to play India in ICC tournaments as we did in the Champions Trophy and so on, but no Test or Limited Overs series will be played between the two countries in the foreseeable future," he said.