India might play cricket with Pakistan in December. But there might be a spoiler ahead

If you’re a cricket crazy Indian, count till December. In a nerve thrilling cricket series, India would take on its immediate neighbour and a tough rival in the gentleman’s game, Pakistan. Both the nations believing cricket series to be a key to unlock the path to peace are keen on the game-treaty. Proof being, Pakistan Cricket Board chief Shahryar Khan meeting finance minister Arun Jaitley yesterday to discuss the same.

Anurag Thakur, the secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) told The Economic Times that there is no final commitment yet and that these are just initial talks. Thakur had also met Khan in Delhi yesterady.

As per the news report published in the ET, a few BJP MPs had raised objections to a proposed India-Pakistan series. Modi had told his party men at a BJP parliamentary party meeting on Tuesday that the government has taken a decision to start a cricket series between the two countries to improve relations.

PCB chief Khan had said earlier this week, after a meeting with Indian cricket board president Jagmohan Dalmiya, that Pakistan was ready to host India in the UAE in December.

A senior official told the financial daily that the home ministry had been broached for its views on the prospect of holding a India-Pakistan cricket series in the UAE and has conveyed that since the series is proposed in a third country, it falls outside the MHA remit. The official said MHA view is that this is "purely a ministry of external affairs matter as it concerns international relations". "Had the series been proposed in India, we would have surely done a domestic assessment of the same considering the security scenarios. But a series in a third country is purely in the domain of the MEA. This has been conveyed by us," said a senior home ministry official, on condition of anonymity.

The December series is likely to have three Tests, five ODIs and two T20 matches. Khan, however, was quoted as saying that there was one more hurdle to overcome.

A senior BCCI official said Khan was referring to differences between the two boards on broadcast rights as PCB has an association with Ten Sports, owned by Subhash Chandra-run Zee group. Chandra has been in the news for trying to set up a rival cricketing league and BCCI does not approve of PCB's association with Ten.