Pakistan refuses to comment on Anurag Thakur's statement

Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Shahryar Khan. (AP file photo)     Lahore: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has refused to officially comment on reports that BCCI President will write to the ICC to not place Pakistan with India in the group stages of any ICC event. A senior PCB official when contacted said that since nothing had taken place officially it was useless to comment on such reports. "We are hearing and reading such statements in recent days but we don't think it is necessary to react to them at this stage" he said. BCCI President, Anurag Thakur, who is also a top leader of the ruling BJP party, said on Friday that BCCI would ask the ICC not to put India with Pakistan in the same group of any ICC event. Earlier, Thakur had completely ruled out any cricket ties with Pakistan considering the escalating tension between the two countries. But sources said that Thakur's statements were not taken seriously in the PCB since he was a politician and was apparently playing to the galleries. "If they really don't want to play Pakistan at all would they be willing to forfeit the match against us in next year's Champions Trophy," one source questioned. He said as it was there could be no change made in the Champions Trophy schedule unless India just forfeited matches against Pakistan. "No changes can be made now so what is the purpose of such statements except to play to the galleries," another source said. He said privately whenever Pakistan and Indian cricket officials came across each other at ICC meetings, Thakur talked about wanting to see normalizing of cricket relations. "But for public consumption he gives different statements," the source noted. The source said that India had not played Pakistan in a proper bilateral series since 2007 and even backed out of its MOU signed with PCB to play six series from 2015 to 2022 so what was the purpose of talking about not having cricket ties with Pakistan.