Ramiz Raja meets Sourav Ganguly, Jay Shah ahead of India-Pakistan ICC World T20 2021 opener

In what comes as an exciting development, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ramiz Raja met the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Sourav Ganguly, and secretary Jay Shah in Dubai. The development comes just days before India and Pakistan clash in their opening encounter of the 2021 ICC World T20 at the Dubai International Stadium on Sunday.

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Speaking about the meeting, Raja stated that there was much groundwork to be done before India and Pakistan resume cricketing relations full-fledged. PCB and BCCI were a part of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Executive Board meeting, held on Friday in Dubai.

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"I met with BCCI President Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah on the sidelines of the ACC meetings. We need to create a cricketing bond, while I have also believed that politics should stay away from sport as much as possible, and this has always been our stance," he said in a .

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"A lot of work needs to be done to revitalise Pakistan-India cricket, but there needs to be some comfortable level between the two boards, and then, we can see how far we can go. So, overall, we had a good discussion," he added.

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Raja also clarified that the 2022 ACC Asia Cup would be held in Sri Lanka, a 20-over competition, right before the ICC World T20 2022 in Australia. He also asserted that the 2023 ACC Asia Cup would be held in Pakistan, a 50-over tournament, right before the ICC World Cup 2023, to be held in India.

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However, given the strained political relations between the two countries, it would be interesting to see if India would be willing to travel to Pakistan for the 2023 Asia Cup. As of now, BCCI cannot travel to Pakistan without the permission of the Indian government.