India-Pakistan bilateral cricket: Giles Clarke gets involved

KARACHI: PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan said today that former England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chief Giles Clarke was playing a role in trying to revive the planned Indo-Pak bilateral series in December.

"We are trying to make some progress with India and we can only unveil our plan B when it is confirmed the series will not be held with India," Khan said.

Clarke was due to reach Dubai on the invitation of PCB to watch the ongoing Pakistan versus England one-day series and then fly to Lahore for a visit with a security expert, but apparently, he has cancelled his visit due to personal reasons.

The chairmen of PCB and BCCI - Shaharyar Khan and Shashank Manohar - are scheduled to meet in Dubai over the weekend.

While Khan is already in Dubai to watch the series between Pakistan and England, Manohar is scheduled to arrive here on his first visit as chairman of ICC.

Khan told reporters in Dubai today that he was trying to save the series with India.

"The matter is now in the hands of our Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and he will decide on the series but we are trying to convince India to play in UAE and drop their proposal of shifting the series to India," Khan said.

The PCB has stuck to its stance of not playing its 'home' series in India since Khan first confirmed that Manohar had verbally invited him to play the December series in India and assured financial benefits for PCB.