The news that India and Pakistan will finally meet on the cricket field during the Asian Test Championship in Pakistan in September will be welcome news for cricket lovers all over the world. The cynics of course will say that nothing can be certain with these two countries, given their troubled cricketing relations for some time now. Again, there is a lot of time between now and September and anything could happen. Also, there is no doubt that even after the Asian Cricket Council meeting at Lahore, at which the dates and fixtures for the Asian Test Championship were drawn up, there seems to be an unmistakable under layer of tension.

Pakistan's tough stance was symbolised by the PCB chairman Tauqir Zia on the eve of the ACC meeting when he made it clear that Pakistan was willing to play in India next year when this country is expected to host the ICC KnockOut tournament, provided India first played in Pakistan. "If India promises to play Pakistan in this year's Asian Test championship, we would be delighted to cross the borders for the ICC KnockOut tournament," he said. "We will also support India as the ICC KnockOut tournament venue at the meeting at Lord's on June 15," he added.

Cricketing relations between India and Pakistan have remained strained, first following the Kargil conflict in mid 1999 and then because of political tension over terrorist activities in Kashmir. India twice pulled out of the Sahara Cup series against Pakistan at Toronto. Last November, Pakistan threatened to break all cricketing relations with India after India cancelled a tour to Pakistan scheduled for December 2000 - January 2001. The cancellation of the series, it was reported, meant a loss of 15 million dollars to the PCB. Close on this, India skipped a one day triangular tournament in Sharjah, a move which further angered Pakistan cricket authorities who said they would boycott the Indian team in future. The BCCI, on their part, threatened to boycott major tournaments until the government clarified its policy on who and where India could play. But the BCCI last week withdrew the threat after receiving a government assurance which said that restrictions were only for events involving just India and Pakistan.

Indeed at the ACC meeting, Zia conformed that the Indian officials had shown a letter from their government which clearly stated that India could participate in multilateral tournaments like the Asian Test Championship, the ICC KnockOut tournament and the World Cup. But Zia also said that as far as a bilateral series between Pakistan and India is concerned, the Indian government had not taken any decision in this regard. "If they want to revive bilateral cricket, India should first come to Pakistan. If they don't play against us in Pakistan, we are not interested in competing against them in their own country. Cricket authorities and the players of both the countries are willing to play against each other but there are some political hurdles in the way of revival of (cricket) relations," Zia said. The PCB chief's remarks, which came at a press conference called to announce the venues and fixtures of the Asian Test Championship, clearly underscored that the strong under currents of tension are still prevalent.

In addition, the fact that it has been agreed at the ACC meeting to have a system by which a side failing to honour contractual obligations to play in a series has to offer compensation to its rival team is bound to add to the tension. For some time now, Pakistan had been demanding such a compensation clause to be included in the ICC's ten-year calendar for Test playing countries. After claiming that India's decision to cancel its scheduled tour to Pakistan last year had cost substantial financial losses to it, the PCB had urged the ICC to introduce such a clause to deter any country from going back on playing commitments in future.

According to the ICC's ten year tour programme, India is scheduled to play against Pakistan in Pakistan three times. In addition to this, according to Zia, India has also agreed to take part in the Asia Cup to be played in Pakistan in 2002. At the moment, given the strained relations and the continuing tension one cannot say for certain whether these tours will come off. It may be recalled that India's last tour of Pakistan was in November-December 1989 when K Srikkanth's team drew all the matches in a four Test series.

But the PCB chief, who is also the chairman of the ACC, also adopted a diplomatic approach in praising the Indian authorities. "They have shown flexibility in furthering cricket ties with Pakistan and have taken initiatives in this regard by agreeing to allow their team to play Pakistan in multilateral tournaments. The PCB welcomes this," Zia said. He also proposed a quadrangular one-day tournament, involving Zimbabwe and West Indies as the other two nations, to be jointly hosted by India and Pakistan in February next year to further cement sporting ties. "West Indies is visiting Pakistan early next year and Zimbabwe will be in India. It is a good opportunity to organise a tournament involving all the four countries," Zia said, adding that the tournament can be played in both the countries.

With Zia blowing hot and cold, with the Indian government still not giving any assurance on a bilateral series, and with the strong under currents of tension all too obvious, can one be blamed for reasoning that an aura of uncertainty still marks India-Pakistan cricketing ties?

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