Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Shahryar Khan, who met Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Jagmohan Dalmiya here today to revive the cricketing ties, proposed five series in eight years between the two Asian neighbours.
"The series between Indian and Pakistan are more important than any other series in the world, more important than the Ashes series. Within 20 minutes of the India-Pakistan match being scheduled in Adelaide, all the tickets were full. And this shows the importance that Pakistan-India series hold not only to us, but to the world cricket community," Khan told the media here.
"So, I have come here first to congratulate my old friend to pick up the thread of cooperation with Board of Control for Cricket in India. And we have also talked about many issues which we can move forward on. As you know, we have a Memorandum of Understanding to play five series in eight years and the first of these is scheduled to take place in December this year. And I have come here to state that this is an important beginning, a re-beginning, a revival of Pakistan-India cricket which is so important to the cricketing community of India and Pakistan and of course to the rest of the world," he added.
The PCB boss also expressed his pleasure over the discussions between him and Dalmiya to revive the cricketing ties between both sides.
"I am very very happy with the discussions that we had. We are going to continue talking to each other to move the process forward and basically with a view to reviving India-Pakistan cricket," he added.
Dalmiya on his part also looked quite positive about the proposed series between India and Pakistan.
"Without government's support, we can do nothing. After all India's support-politically as well as otherwise- we have to look into it whether it's a Pakistan board or whether it's an Indian board. We will be informing you from time to time, what is happening. If we have difficulty, we will come back to you to tell you that," Dalmia said when asked whether he had received the government's green signal.
"At the moment we find no problems and there is no reason to consider that there will be a problem," he added.
The last time the two nations played was in 2012-13 when Pakistan visited India for a three-match One Day International (ODI) and two-match Twenty20 series.
