PCB slashes match with India in PoK

Pakistan's Cricket Board (PCB) will not ask India to play a one-day match in Pakistan occupied Kashmir next year, board chairman Shaharyar Khan said on Monday.

Last week the sports minister in Pakistani-ruled Kashmir, Dewan Ali Chughtai, said a request had been sent to the PCB to play a match in Muzaffarabad, capital of the Pakistani-ruled zone known as Azad Kashmir.

India are due to tour Pakistan from January next year, playing three Tests and five one-day internationals.

Khan said the board had not yet received a formal request from the government of Pakistani Kashmir.

"And even if we do, the fact is we have already

"We want to promote cricket in Azad Kashmir but it is premature to ask India to play there."

Kashmir lies at the heart of tensions between the two nuclear-armed rivals who have fought two of their three wars over it since they won independence from British rule in 1947.

The two nations launched a slow-moving peace process last year after going to the brink of a fourth war in 2002. Since then they have restored sports, travel and diplomatic links.

India toured Pakistan last year after a gap of 14 years to play a Test series.