India To Host Pakistani Cricketers

By Parvez Fatteh, Founder of http://sportingummah.com, sports@muslimobserver.com

India has invited Pakistan to play three one-day cricket matches and two Twenty20 matches in December of 2012 and January 2013. This would mark the first head-to-head matches between the arch-rivals in five years.

“We have discussed all security aspects (and) the tour is on,” Indian Board of Control spokesman Rajiv Shukla told reporters after a meeting between its officials and Indian Home Secretary R. K. Singh in New Delhi.

A report by the Press Trust of India said the venues for the One Day International games would most likely be Chennai, Kolkata and New Delhi while the Twenty20 matches would take place in Bangalore and Ahmedabad.

The two countries have not played a series since Pakistan’s tour of India in 2007. Cricket ties were subsequently severed following the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai by militants from Pakistan.

Cricket relations have been the subject of discussions between the governments of both countries. They have been holding regular meetings in a bid to improve relations and eventually thrash out a peace agreement. The two cricket-crazed nations have fought three wars since independence in 1947.

The Indian and Pakistani cricket teams have only met in international tournaments since 2007.They clashed in the One Day International World Cup semi-final in the northern Indian town of Mohali last year, a match that was attended by both countries’ prime ministers.

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