PCB wants North America to be next Indo-Pak 'off-shore' venue

Lahore, June 24 (UNI) North-America may be the next Toronto for the Indian and Pakistani cricketing buffs, as the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) seemed eager to reninstate ties in 'neutral venues'.

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Nasim Ashraf said yesterday, the Pakistan team is eager to play ODI matches with arch-rivals India at neutral overseas venues, primarily in North America.

''Pakistan is eager to squeeze a one-day event at an offshore venue and the presence of large number of Pakistani and Indian people in North American countries demand for such events,'' PCB chief Nasim Ashraf told reporters.

''We need to find time slots for such events and hopefully we can arrange an event on the lines of Toronto by next year,'' he added.

The sub-continent neighbours started playing each other again at neutral venues after severing ties in 2000 in the aftermath of Kargil conflict and used the game as a tool to bring in normalcy between the two hostile countries.

Earlier, both the countries used to play regularly at neutral sites, most notably in Sharjah. They also played two tournaments in Toronto in 1996 and 1997.

Ashraf also said India wanted to sign an agreement last year but the PCB at the time turned down the offer.

''India wanted us to sign an agreement on playing events offshore but understandably some of our players wanted proper breaks between series and did not want offshore events,'' he said.

UNI