ICC to encourage resumption of Indo-Pak series: Pawar

Barely hours after taking over as the ICC president, Sharad Pawar, on Thursday, said the game's apex body would try to encourage the resumption of Indo-Pak bilateral series if there is government clearance from both sides.

Barely hours after taking over as the ICC president, Sharad Pawar, on Thursday, said the game's apex body would try to encourage the resumption of Indo-Pak bilateral series if there is government clearance from both sides.

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"Recent Foreign and Home Minister's visit to Pakistan is a welcome sign. If India and Pakistan start playing and it influences the bilateral relations of the two countries and also if both the governments permit, we will be happy to encourage," Pawar said.

Former BCCI President Pawar, who is also a serving union minister in the Indian government, begins a two-year term as ICC President after taking over from David Morgan today.

The 69-year-old Pawar hoped the process to improve the relations between the two neighbouring countries will help to foster cricketing ties too. "ICC wants India and Pakistan to continue their bilateral series. But ICC had not taken the initiative to stop that. It was because of some unforseen circumstances that both the countries had decided to stop it. But now that the process to improve relations between the countries is on, it will give some dividends to cricket too," Pawar told CNN-IBN.

The cricketing ties between India and Pakistan were stalled after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack in 2008.