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Pakistan has no other way than raising the standard of its game if it has to force superpower India to resume bilateral cricketing ties, feels the new Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) dispensation.
India and Pakistan have not played a full bilateral series since 2007 owing to tense relations between the neighbouring countries. Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has shown eagerness to resume cricketing relations but the Board of Control for Cricket in India has maintained that the Indian government calls the shots in the case.
"I think when (Pakistan become a top team) that happens, it can create a situation where India asks us to play a bilateral series," new PCB MD Wasim Khan said in a media interaction in Lahore.
In the absence of bilateral series, both teams have only met in International Cricket Council and Asian Cricket Council multilateral events, most recently in the Asia Cup held in the UAE last September.
In 2012, Pakistan did go to India for a short tour but it did not play Tests.
Ehsan Mani, who took charge as PCB Chairman last August, has already said that Pakistan would not beg India to play.
Mani supported Wasim Khan's contention, saying that if the PCB can take the country's cricket to a level where it is among the top three teams in the world, then India will come on their own to "play with us".
Both Mani and Khan felt that Pakistan's failed attempt to get BCCI to compensate it for not honouring an MoU with the ICC's Disputes Resolution Committee had not soured relations.
The Chairman disclosed that the Board's total expenses on the compensation case, which it lost to BCCI, were about two million dollars including legal fees of the lawyers.