Pakistan cricket legend Wasim Akram on Tuesday said he was anxiously hoping for a “yes” result as fans wait to hear if a planned series between archrivals Pakistan and India is to go ahead.
A recent thaw in India-Pakistan relations, with the prime ministers of both nations holding a short meeting in Paris last week, followed by talks between their security advisers in Bangkok, has raised hopes of a revival of cricket ties, stalled since 2008.
Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Shahryar Khan on Monday said the series’ fate is to be decided during a visit to Islamabad by Indian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sushma Swaraj this week.
Photo: AFP
“Of course, I am waiting for India’s ‘yes’ on the series and I am as keen as millions of fans across both the borders,” Wasim told reporters in Karachi.
The series, agreed between the two boards in a memorandum of understanding signed last year, ran into trouble amid strained relations over cross-border shelling in the disputed Kashmir region.
The PCB said it hopes the visit by Swaraj, who arrived in Islamabad on Tuesday, would clear the way for the series — three one-day and two Twenty20 internationals — to be played on neutral ground, in Sri Lanka, later this month.
“I think that politics and cricket should not be mixed, and if both countries do that, there will be no way cricket is stopped,” Wasim said.
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