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BCCI suggests ODI at Ahmedabad
BCCI feels Pak can help avoid embarrassment for India by playing a one-dayer at the venue.
In an apparent move to accommodate the wishes of the Pakistan Cricket Board that does not want its team play at Ahmedabad, the Indian cricket board has given the option of playing a One-Day International in lieu of the scheduled Test.
The proposal has come from vice-president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, Rajeev Shukla, who has met key officials of the PCB in Lahore, The News reported.
"Sources in the PCB said that... Shukla had given this proposal in his meeting with the PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan on Tuesday in Lahore and had asked the PCB to give it serious consideration," said the daily.
"The BCCI feels that Pakistan can help avoid an embarrassing political and diplomatic situation for India by agreeing to play a one-dayer in Ahmedabad in place of the Test match," the source said.
The PCB has rejected Ahmedabad as a Test venue on security concerns, but "insiders put this decision down to the political fallout for the government of playing at a centre where communal riots took place in 2002", it said.
The source said that Shukla had also tried to convince some top-ranking government officials to allow the Pakistan team to play the ODI and assured the Test could be played at any venue acceptable to Pakistan.
The Pakistani team, which arrives in India February 25, is due to play three Tests and five One-Day Internationals on the tour in India — the first in six years.
