India-Pakistan cricket series: Mumbaikars can watch it only on TV

NEW DELHI: Sticking to the established pattern of keeping Mumbai out of the itinerary of an India-Pakistan series, the Board of Control for Cricket in India never proposed Mumbai as a venue for the upcoming series.

Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray has threatened to disrupt the upcoming five-match India-Pakistan cricket series here saying the series was a 'national shame'. The Centre on Monday said no matches had been scheduled in Mumbai or Maharashtra in the first place anticipating such a reaction. "The Board of Control for Cricket in India never proposed Mumbai or any Maharashtra city as a venue for the upcoming cricket series during their talks with the central government for obtaining clearance for the series. No India-Pakistan match has been scheduled in Mumbai for over three decades now," a government official said.

Pakistan played India in eight matches during their last tour here in 2007, but none of the matches were held in Mumbai. The last time India and Pakistan played in Mumbai was a test match in 1979, which India won. BCCI claims the matches are scheduled at various venues by rotation and denied Pakistan's request to host a match in Mohali on this ground but it remains a strange coincidence that no India-Pakistan match has been scheduled in Mumbai for the last 33 years during which both countries have played matches nearly 50 matches at various other Indian venues.

The BCCI sees Mumbai as a no-no for an Indo-Pak match, especially after Shiv Sena vanadalised the pitch at Wankhede Stadium in October 1991, protesting a proposed Indo-Pak series.


Protestors had also dug up the cricket pitch in Delhi in 1999, but Indo-Pak matches have since been held in Delhi and the capital is hosting a match in the upcoming series as well on January 6, pointing to the fact that the no-show in Maharashtra remains due to the Shiv Sena presence there. No government official is willing to speak officially on why no Indo-Pak match is ever scheduled by BCCI in Mumbai or why the government never presses for a match there.

Minister of state for home RPN Singh, meanwhile, assured fool-proof security for the matches scheduled at Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata and Ahmedabad. "The matches will happen as per schedule. Those opposing it should take the game as game only," Singh said. The states holding the matches have been advised by MHA to ensure full security and Thackeray's threat means they will have to put in an effort to convince a Pakistan delegation which is expected here to review the security.

In a statement in Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamana, Thackeray has asked, 'staunch Hindus and patriotic public' not to allow the ensuing Indo-Pak cricket matches in India, unless home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde withdraws his statement on 'forgetting the past' to play cricket with Pakistan. Shinde had commented that past incidents should not come in the way of allowing the Pakistan team to play cricket in India.

"Shinde saheb, if you have an iota of shame left, then withdraw this shameless remark of yours. I am bed ridden but even in this condition, my blood boils and hence I am making this appeal to my Hindu brethren to disrupt these matches," Thackeray wrote. "You say let bygones be bygones. What to forget and how to forget," Thackeray added.