BCCI President Roger Binny said that he is 'hopeful' of an India vs Pakistan bilateral series sooner rather than later. However, the 1983 World Cup winner also stated that the BCCI alone cannot take the call and will leave up to the govenments of both the countries to decide. (More Cricket news)
"BCCI can't say. It is a government issue, and they will have to take a call. We need to wait and see. And hopefully, it will happen because the (ODI) World Cup is coming up, Pakistan team will be in India to play," Binny was quoted speaking to PTI after returning to India from his historic visit to Pakistan.
Binny and BCCI vice-president Rajeev Shukla returned to India from Pakistan via the Attari-Wagah border after the duo attended an Asia Cup match on Pakistan Cricket Board's invitation. The travel of Binny and Shukla also sees the first instance in 17 years that two BCCI officials have travelled to Pakistan.
As for the cricket, India and Pakistan are currently pre-occupied with the Asia Cup 2023 in Sri Lanka with their Super 4 game scheduled on Sunday. After the group game being a wash-out, the two arch-rivals will clash again as both the teams look to chalk out the mistakes ahead of the ODI World Cup in October.
The last time India toured Pakistan was in 2006 for a bilateral series. India's last visit to Pakistan was in 2008 for the Asia Cup. Pakistan did tour India in 2012 however due to frosty relations between both the nations, these two have since met in ICC and ACC events.
Binny was quizzed whether cricket can restore peace between the two nations. He said, "Cricket has always been an important medium even before. Take the 2004 tour, for example; the atmosphere that was created resulted in a great friendship and trade delegations. The shopkeepers were not even taking money from people, that was a great atmosphere."
The BCCI President also praised the hospitality from Pakistan. "We had a very good meeting in Pakistan. We received very good hospitality. They took care of us very well. The main agenda was to watch cricket and to sit and discuss things with them. Overall, it was a very good trip," he added. "Pakistan treated us very well, they went out of the way to make us comfortable."
The BCCI Vice-president Rajeev Shukla also had high praises for PCB for its hospitality.
"The meeting was very good. The Pakistan Cricket Board took very good care of us. The security was tremendous, all the arrangements were fabulous. It was a goodwill visit for cricket which went well.
"The Asian Cricket Council (ACC) President Mr Jay Shah is also BCCI secretary, so keeping in mind that, we had this visit. BCCI enjoys a good relationship will all the ACC members, that's why we also visited Sri Lanka."
