PCB declines request for Indian veterans tour

The PCB has declined a request by the Pakistan Veterans Cricket Association (PVCA) to write to the BCCI and invite an Indian veterans team to play in Pakistan. The PVCA, following the PCB's refusal, have sought help from the Pakistan President, who is also the patron-in-chief of the country's cricket board.

"We have written a letter to PCB's patron-in-chief Mr Asif Ali Zardari asking him to instruct the board to accept our request of writing to BCCI," Fawad Ijaz Khan, the president of the PVCA said. "The tour is being organised for a noble cause and therefore the cause should be supported as it will only help in rebuilding the lost image of Pakistan."

There has been no international cricket in Pakistan since the attack on Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore in March last year, while a breakdown in diplomatic relations between India and Pakistan in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks in November 2008 have affected cricketing ties between the two countries. Pakistan cricketers have not featured in the last two IPLs, and haven't played India in a bilateral series since.

There have been attempts on the Indian side to get the tour going. The Board for Veteran Cricket in India (BVCI) had agreed to tour Pakistan to play Twenty20 matches to raise funds for flood victims, but required approval from the BCCI. Former India opener Chetan Chauhan, president of the BVCI, said that the Indian body had applied to the BCCI for a No Objection Certificate (NOC) more than six weeks ago. "We are not associated with the BCCI but we always want to be on the safe side and so we take an NOC with the BCCI and then go to the Sports Ministry and after that the Home Ministry for the visa process." The process of going through the paperwork once the NOC was received from the BCCI, he said, would take about three weeks.

Chauhan said his Pakistani counterparts had assured the BVCI of PCB's support. Chauhan wanted the Pakistan veterans body to get a letter of support from the PCB. "We asked for this letter of of assistance and co-operation, so we can talk to the BCCI. If the PCB directly wrote to the BCCI, there would be nothing like it. We would really want to help their cause."

There is a good chance that the entire process may have been slowed down at the Indian end, due to security concerns on the part of the Indian veterans themselves, with some officials fearing last-minute withdrawals by cricketers they would have decided to select for the tour.