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Pak tour may be delayed by 4-5 days
The BCCI has proposed that Ahmedabad host an unscheduled One-Day International.
India's cricket board on Thursday accepted a Pakistani request to change one Test venue but said its neighbour's first cricket tour across the border in six years may still be delayed by continuing disputes over venues and television rights.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) accepted Pakistan's demand to avoid Ahmedabad as a Test venue, but proposed the city host an unscheduled One-Day International to appease local politicians and cricket officials.
The BCCI on Thursday sent a revised list of venues for the approval of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), under which the Test will shift to Kolkata and Ahmedabad is allotted one of the six one-dayers.
The PCB is expected to reply in the next 48 hours whether it is willing to consider a one-dayer in Ahmedabad, where at least 2,000 people — mostly Muslims — were killed in communal riots in 2002.
The tour is scheduled to start on February 25.
"There is a possibility the tour may be postponed by four to five days," BCCI president Ranbir Singh Mahendra told reporters after a meeting of the board's working committee.
"We want everything to be in place before the tour starts."
Mohali and Bangalore will host the other two Tests during the seven-week tour, while the one-dayers will be played in Cochin, Visakhapatnam, Jamshedpur, Kanpur and New Delhi.
Only five one-dayers had been originally scheduled but a sixth was added to accommodate Ahmedabad.
India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party last week urged the government to cancel the tour if Pakistan declines to play in Ahmedabad.
The BCCI was also unable to finalise TV rights for the high-profile series following an ongoing legal battle in the Madras High Court.
The BCCI backed out of a four-year, 308-million dollar deal with India's Zee Telefilms last September after it was challenged in court by rival ESPN-Star Sports, jointly owned by Disney and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.
