Asian Cricket Council (ACC) has accepted Pakistan’s plea to shift the upcoming U19 Asia Cup from India to Malaysia.
“We are asking for a neutral venue for the Under-19 World Cup, rather than holding it in India,” PCB Chairman Najam Sethi had said in a press conference after being elected on Wednesday.
It has been quite a long time now since arch rivals have competed in a proper bilateral series. Owing to the disputes in the political relationship between the two countries, the two cricket boards have always been at the opposite ends.
A few years ago Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Pakistani counterparts.
According to the terms and conditions mentioned in the MoU, they have to play six series against India within a span of eight years, four of which will be hosted by Pakistan.
Seeing the men in blue not willing to come to the cricket starved nation of Pakistan, PCB even offered to use a neutral venue as their home ground. But all of their pleas went in vain as the BCCI was firm in their decision of not playing a series against Pakistan.
From there, the relationship status shared between the two boards has worsened and both acted as an outright opposition to the other.
With the latest decision of ACC, the 2018 Asia Cup of the senior teams is also under dark clouds. In October 2015 meeting, it was decided that the 2018 Asia Cup will be hosted by India. But with the latest turn of events, it is highly probable that Pakistan will not send its team to India, using the same weapon that is citing lack of security.
