da realsbet： The Sports Ministry has forwarded the letter from the Board of Controlfor Cricket in India, asking for the Government’s permission to playagainst Pakistan at Karachi in the Asian Test Championship (ATC) matchin September, to the Ministry of
da blaze casino： 10-Aug-2001The Sports Ministry has forwarded the letter from the Board of Controlfor Cricket in India, asking for the Government’s permission to playagainst Pakistan at Karachi in the Asian Test Championship (ATC) matchin September, to the Ministry of External Affairs which will take afinal decision on the issue.Sports Minister Uma Bharti said on Friday that her ministry hadreceived BCCI’s letter dated July 26 and forwarded it to the MEA whichwill take a final decision in consultation with the Ministry of HomeAffairs.BCCI president AC Muthiah met Bharti on Friday to know theGovernment’s response to the letter. Though Muthiah described themeeting as a ‘courtesy call’, he admitted that the ATC came up fordiscussion. “She (Bharti) told me that the matter was underconsideration,” Muthiah said after the meeting.”The Government has already said that it would allow the team to playagainst Pakistan in multi-lateral tournaments but a final decision onATC was still to be taken,” he said, adding that he expected thedecision by the third week of this month.ATC involves Sri Lanka and Bangladesh besides India and Pakistan.Every match is played in either of the participating countries on arotational basis. India and Pakistan had played in Kolkata in theinaugural event in 1999 and it is Pakistan’s turn to host India thistime.To a suggestion whether India and Pakistan can play the ATC match in aneutral venue like Colombo, Muthiah said it would be unacceptable.”If we don’t play Pakistan in Karachi, the tournament will have to becalled off. Pakistan wants us to play in their country. We also wantPakistan to come to India,” he said.Muthiah said India’s performance in the recent triangular one-dayseries in Sri Lanka was ‘disappointing’ especially in the final matchwhere they suffered a humiliating 121-run loss to the hosts. “It wasdisappointing. The defeat in the final was the eighth in a row. Theteam needs to break the jinx,” he said.
