‘India looking to promote cricketing ties’
Country’s foreign secretary says security the only concern.
KARACHI:
It might be the first good news since the Mumbai attacks in 2008 as India’s Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said that the country was looking to promote cricketing contacts with Pakistan.
The bilateral series between the two archrivals, a regular feature since 2005 before a gun attack in Mumbai was blamed on elements within Pakistan, had been put off due to soaring political tension. With India hosting Pakistan in the World Cup semi-final in Mohali and Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani paying a visit to the country, views favouring the renewal of cricketing ties were put forward.
“It’s not like we’ve forbidden them,” said Rao in a television interview. “Security is always an issue and we always like to be sure about it when we allow our teams to go there. I think cricket sometimes becomes an instrument of diplomacy.”
Published in The Express Tribune, April 8th, 2011.
It might be the first good news since the Mumbai attacks in 2008 as India’s Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said that the country was looking to promote cricketing contacts with Pakistan.
The bilateral series between the two archrivals, a regular feature since 2005 before a gun attack in Mumbai was blamed on elements within Pakistan, had been put off due to soaring political tension. With India hosting Pakistan in the World Cup semi-final in Mohali and Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani paying a visit to the country, views favouring the renewal of cricketing ties were put forward.
“It’s not like we’ve forbidden them,” said Rao in a television interview. “Security is always an issue and we always like to be sure about it when we allow our teams to go there. I think cricket sometimes becomes an instrument of diplomacy.”
Published in The Express Tribune, April 8th, 2011.