ECB developing proposal to host Tests between India and Pakistan | Cricket

The England and Wales Cricket Board is growing a proposal to host Check cricket between Pakistan and India on impartial floor in England.

It has been 15 years for the reason that two nations final performed a Check match in opposition to one another, and 10 since they final performed a white-ball collection. Since then, the fixture, which has the very best profile in world cricket, has taken place solely once they have been drawn in opposition to one another in Worldwide Cricket Council tournaments.

The negotiations are described as a “work in progress” however the ECB board member Martin Darlow has made it clear to each the Pakistan Cricket Board and the Board of Management for Cricket in India that England are eager to host the matches if the chance arises.

There’s a risk that it might occur anyway if the 2 groups attain the World Check Championship remaining in 2023, which can be performed on the Oval. However that’s unlikely since India are fourth within the standings, and Pakistan fifth. There may be additionally the 2025 WTC remaining at Lord’s. However the thought has additionally been mentioned of arranging a one-off Check between the edges at Edgbaston, and, past that, even a three-Check collection. The ECB’s supply is motivated by the assumption it will be significant for the recognition of Check cricket world wide to get the 2 groups enjoying one another once more.

England beforehand hosted Pakistan in each Check and T20 collection in opposition to Australia in 2010, once they have been unable to play in their very own nation after the terrorist assault on the Sri Lanka group in 2009. The thought of reprising the association fell away when relations between the ECB and PCB soured after the spot-fixing scandal that broke later that summer season. After years of onerous work to restore their fame as a global venue, the PCB’s desire is for any potential India v Pakistan collection to be performed in one of many two nations concerned. However political relations between their governments might make that unlikely within the close to future.

India and Pakistan went 18 years with no Check within the Nineteen Sixties and late Nineteen Seventies, however the groups performed in opposition to one another commonly within the many years afterwards. The final was a 3‑Check collection in India in 2007, which the hosts received 1-0. It has now been 15 years, and, until plans change, this newest interregnum will find yourself because the longest hole between their fixtures since Pakistan received Check match standing in 1952. The collection is larger than the Ashes, larger, in actual fact, than nearly another bilateral occasion in world sport, and its resumption could be a fillip for Check cricket at a time when it’s underneath extra strain than ever.

England’s Moeen Ali is a supporter of the thought. “That may be superior, sensible,” he mentioned. “It’s a disgrace that they don’t play one another until it’s a World Cup or an ICC occasion as a result of they’re two nice groups and two large enjoying nations. With the viewing figures concerned, it might be one of many greatest video games, and it’s not been completed for a really very long time. It might be a terrific sport as a result of Pakistan have a very good bowling assault, and India have a terrific Check facet. It might be actually good.” His dwelling metropolis of Birmingham, which hosted fixtures between the groups through the Champions Trophy in 2013 and 2017, is seen as the plain impartial venue.

The PCB can be trying to cooperate with different boards because it seeks to push again in opposition to new franchise cricket leagues, specifically the UAE’s ILT20, which launches in January. A number of ICC member nations are alarmed by the league’s guidelines on abroad gamers, which permit as many as 9 per group. Earlier than the following ICC assembly in November, strikes are underneath method to organize a joint response through which a number of full member nations undertake a blanket place of denying their contracted gamers permission to participate within the competitors.