The Board of Control for Cricket in India on Thursday said it is neither sad nor relieved after the government instructed the Cricket Board to call off the Indian team's tour of Pakistan in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks [Images].
The fate of the tour was already hanging in balance with a number of senior players reluctant to tour a strife-torn Pakistan owing to security apprehension.
The series looked doomed when the government called off a junior hockey team's tour of the neighbouring country and the Mumbai terror attacks came as the last nail in the coffin.
Asked whether the BCCI is sad because the tour would not take off or felt relieved, BCCI secretary N Srinivasan said neither is the case.
"We are neither sad nor relieved. It was a reciprocal agreement under which they toured India and we were supposed to tour Pakistan. But the situation is now grim and we will intimate our decision (of not touring) to the Pakistan Cricket Board," the BCCI secretary said in Mumbai.
"We always maintained that we need permission from the central government and were told that under the circumstances, its not feasible to tour Pakistan. Hence, we cannot go there," Srinivasan said.
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Asked if scrapping of the tour would affect preparation of the 2011 World Cup which India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka [Images] and Bangladesh are hosting together, Srinivasan was less than forthright and said, "Its still another two years before that and we have lot of time to think about that."
On whether BCCI would fix any event to fill in the void in the calendar, he said, "We would look into it."
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