ISLAMABAD, 24 JUNE, (DNA) – Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Shahryar Khan believes that India is holding back progress on the Pak-India series saying he hopes the political atmosphere improves and cricket relations can be build-up once again.

Shahryar said PCB signed an agreement in which it agreed to the idea of the Big 3’s influence on world cricket in 2014 with the clear understanding that India would play six series with us over a period of eight years.

“These series would have been played in India or a mutually agreed venue in a third country. The BCCI told PCB that they needed permission from the Indian government for these series and PCB agreed to wait for that but that permission never came through.”

“PCB even agreed to play India in Sri Lanka back in December but even that permission was not forthcoming from the Indian side and as a result the series didn’t happen. It also showed that India had not met PCB’s conditions for accepting the Big 3 formula.

“Pakistan government has never created any hurdles to this series and even at the time of the World Twenty20 when all sorts of threats were being made, Pakistan team still participated in the tournament. It is the Indian government which is holding back progress on this series,” Pakpassion.net quoted him as saying.

Speaking about lack of international cricket in Pakistan, Shahryar said we will be presenting our case in the International Cricket Council (ICC) conference in a few days’ time. “The crux of the problem is that we cannot play home series against international sides which is denigrating towards us.”

“We intend to propose that as we cannot play series at home and we are obliged to hire expensive venues in other countries, therefore the ICC should help us overcome this problem. Let’s see how the ICC reacts to it and whilst they may be receptive to the idea, whether a formula emerges to compensate us for this expenditure is yet to be seen,” he said.

Talking about Test skipper Misbah ul Haq, Shahryar said Misbah has been a wonderful and a very successful captain. “We are ranked number three in the Test rankings but we are way down in limited overs rankings. I am hopeful that Misbah will lead the team on a successful tour and despite his age, we don’t see signs of a decline in his fitness and his capacity to play cricket. I will do everything I can to ensure Misbah carries on playing for and captaining Pakistan.”

“Misbah and Younis Khan are the two fittest men in our young team. I hope this tour will be a successful one and Misbah will be ready to carry on his duties as Test team captain against Australia and West Indies etc,” he said. =DNA