If a thaw is predicted in India-Pakistan relations amidst tensions over Siachen and other border issues, cricket may have played a big part again.
The working committee of the BCCI, which met here on Saturday, has recommended the inclusion of Pakistan’s champion T20 team, Sialkot Stallions, in the Champions League to be held in India in October. The governing council of Champions League, a joint property of BCCI, Cricket Australia and Cricket South Africa, is certain to accept the BCCI proposal.
BCCI’s decision could have been taken only in consultation with the foreign office since cricket ties with Pakistan have been on the blink after the 2008 Mumbai terror attack. The Pakistan team played in India in 2011 in a heavily fortified semi-final of the multi-team world Cup in Mohali in Punjab. But bilateral ties stay suspended and Pakistan cricketers have not been participating in the IPL for four seasons now.
The resumption of full-fledged cricket ties was broached with Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, when Pakistan President, Asif Ali Zardari, paid a visit to India on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Hazrat Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer last month along with his son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. Pakistan stays isolated in cricket since no international cricket team has visited Pakistan after a terrorist attack on a visiting Sri Lankan team in Lahore in 2009.
The participation of the Sialkot team, led by Indian tennis star Sania Mirza’s husband Shoaib Malik, in a T20 championship in India may be a harbinger. BCCI president N. Srinivasan who chaired the meeting did not wish to comment on whether this decision to include the Sialkot team in CL would lead to the revival of cricket ties. “The matter came up for discussion in the Champions League governing council on the composition of the tournament this year and we decided a team from Pakistan could be invited,” he said.
Pakistan Cricket Board has been pushing for inclusion of their domestic T20 champions in the CL right from the event’s inception. Pakistan is the only major Test playing country not to have played in the tournament. “Though PCB has been requesting BCCI for the last three years, we did not consider that, but now we felt it was a good time to invite them,” said IPL governing council chairperson Rajiv Shukla, who is also a prominent Congress politician.