Everything at a Stop

Not just the hockey team, the Government of India even went ahead and warned the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) that touring Pakistan might not be a safe idea.

Whatever the reasons and keeping aside what may have come out of those closed-door meetings between the BCCI and PCB, it is now clear that the series is not happening, at least for the time being.

Evidently, relations between India and Pakistan are likely to touch a new low if finger-pointing goes on the way it has been right after the terror attacks in Mumbai. And if the same line of thought were to be applied to cricket, there won't be any opportunity for the respective cricket boards to bring a thaw in those relations.

"It's now for the external affairs ministry to decide. Nothing is in our hands anymore," chairman of BCCI's media committee Rajiv Shukla told TOI on Saturday.

The PCB was expecting a windfall of close to $20m if India toured, and considering that no other country has agreed to tour Pakistan in the last one year, this was an opportunity they were desperately waiting for.

Speaking to the media in Karachi, PCB chairman Ejaz Butt said India should tour Pakistan and it will be a clear-cut message to the terrorists that cricket will go on. "It is my heartiest wish but in the worst case scenario we will have to shift the series to a neutral venue."

However, two officials from the BCCI spoke to TOI separately and both confirmed that the tour is unlikely to take place, neither in Pakistan nor at any neutral venue, for the time being. "When it comes to the government directly involving itself in something, there's nothing cricket boards can do. We can just wait and watch and do as told," one official said.

Butt's visit to India this week, to meet the BCCI officials, has been cancelled now. The discomfort in touring Pakistan in recent times had been such that Cricket Australia (CA), Cricket South Africa
(CSA) and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) have straightaway refused to travel to the country, ignoring even the mandatory pre-tour security detail that is undertaken.

However, these countries still wouldn't mind touring India and showing solidarity in this moment of crisis. While BCCI vice-president Lalit Modi did express his fears saying that such terror attacks could lead to cricketing nations getting apprehensive about touring India, various cricket boards have come up with official statements saying cricket has to go on and there has to be a show of solidarity.

Should the tour not take place, there is a huge chance that the caretakers of the Twenty20 Champions League, which has been postponed, will try and make that slot available for the tournament.