da betobet： The four-nation tournament that Pakistan and India were planning tohost early next year
Staff Reporter12-Sep-2001The four-nation tournament that Pakistan and India were planning tohost early next year “is as good as written off”, Pakistan CricketBoard Director, Brigadier Munnawar Rana, told the Press Trust of Indiaon Tuesday.”It has little relevance after India decided to opt out from AsianTest Championship in order to avoid playing Pakistan,” Rana said.The Indian government had earlier denied their team permission to playPakistan in Pakistan. Pakistan Cricket Board chief Tauqir Zia reactedstrongly to the decision announcing that no India-Pakistan matcheswill take place until India tours Pakistan.The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the PakistanCricket Board (PCB) had previously agreed to jointly host the tournamentat the Asian Cricket Council meeting.A tri-series featuring India, Pakistan and Bangladesh which wasscheduled to be held in Dhaka might also now be cancelled. Thetournament was planned to be held from December 23, 2001 to January12, 2002.Former Pakistan captain Rameez Raja had only on Monday predicted suchan outcome. He had told reporters in Delhi that as far as he wasconcerned India-Pakistan matches were not going to take place in theimmediate future. “Not in the near future… It’s a sad story…(Indian) Cricket Board is a toothless body. They want to play but arenot being let to play. The problem before us in Pakistan (cricketestablishment) is whom do we talk to (in India to resume cricketties).”