India and Pakistan must resume the sporting ties

India and Pakistan must resume the sporting ties

The Government of Pakistan has recently given the status of ‘most favourable nation’ to India in terms of business and bilateral trade. This decision has had a mixed reaction in the country, however, the international community has welcomed Pakistan’s decision
and it believes that this is going to go a long way in ameliorating the ties between the two major South Asian countries.

There a number of question marks over the long term outcome of this step taken by Pakistan because the major issues like Kashmir, Siachen, the water issue and many more are still facing dead-locks.

The situation is so pathetic at the moment that India is not even ready to resume the sporting ties with Pakistan. The neighbouring countries last played a bilateral series back in 2008-09. Pakistani players are not included in the Indian Premier League
(IPL) since last three years and no Pakistani team is invited to play the Champions League T20 either.

The two countries must understand that the fact that if they want to revive their relations and mutual trust. Sports in general and cricket in particular can play a big role in this matter. Both the nations are crazy when it comes to cricket and there can
be no better way to normalize the relations than cricket.

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has taken some positive steps in this regard as the Chairman PCB, Zaka Ashraf has urged the Board of the Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to resume the cricketing relations.

While talking about the letter that he has written to the BCCI, the new Chairman of PCB said that he is even ready to send the Pakistani team to India next year and it is absolutely imperative for the betterment of the two countries that they have strong
sporting relations.

He said, "I have wrote in the letter that we are willing to play in India next year and the BCCI should finalise details of the tour as soon as possible. In the letter I have highlighted the importance of normalising cricket ties between both countries and
the impact it will have on cricket in the region at a time when relations at the government level are also improving."

Cricket between India and Pakistan is not only good for the political reasons, but it is also one of the most popular battles in the cricketing world. Let us hope that the two boards take a positive step in resuming the relations, which is also going to
break the ice in solving some of the major political issues.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=3804

Posted by Yasir Hashmi on Nov 16 2011. Filed under Pakistan, South Asia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry