BCCI rules out cricket with Pakistan in wake of Gurdaspur terror attack

Earlier, former India captain and current India A coach Rahul Dravid had welcomed the India-Pakistan series from a purely cricketing perspective.

NEW DELHI – Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Secretary Anurag Thakur on Monday said the country is not ready to revive cricketing ties with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) if the security of Indians is compromised, The Times of India newspaper reported. Only the PCB has reached out to the BCCI. “We were talking on those lines, but when you see such attacks on India time and again, the Jammu region, now Punjab, where Indians are losing their lives, as an Indian I don’t see a possibility to that”, the Hamirpur MP added.

“Even today there is a terrorist attack, in Gurdaspur. I understand a sport is a different thing, but our internal security is important”. “It’s not only about cricket, it’s about my country”, Thakur, a lawmaker of India’s ruling party BJP, told a television channel. After 11 hours of consistent firing, the Border Security Forces, Punjab Police’s SWAT team and an Army battalion, killed all three terrorists.

The series was a part of the six series MoU signed between the two boards that is applicable until 2022 under the new Future Tours Program system of the ICC. “If we don’t clear those issues, it would not be possible to enter that territory”, he said.

He also said that if Pakistan feels that Cricket can bring peace between the two countries when the terror activities are being operated continuously, they are completely wrong.

The BCCI and Pakistan Cricket Board had agreed to play two Tests and five ODIs at a neutral venue, which could have been UAE.