As the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is yet to give a go-ahead to the much-talked-about India vs Pakistan series in December, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has finally decided to not pursue the cause further.
PCB chairman Shahryar Khan said they are going to make a formal announcement on Monday regarding the India-Pakistan series.
"Yes, we haven't received a reply from the BCCI till Saturday evening, therefore, we are closing this chapter now. We will, however, make an announcement in this regard by Monday," PCB chief Shahryar Khan was quoted as saying by the Dawn newspaper on Sunday.
"We made every possible effort to play India and even changed the venue from the UAE to Sri Lanka on the BCCI's request, but our efforts went in vain. We signed an MoU with the BCCI last year and were sincere in playing cricket with them. Our failure to realise the series disappointed millions of cricket fans all over the world, especially in India and Pakistan."
Khan had also mentioned earlier that it would be rather difficult to arrange a series on such short notice, and the PCB could not be blamed for the cancellation of the series.
According to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the two cricket bodies, it was Pakistan's turn this year to host India for a full-length series.
Hope still did not die when India's External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj went to Islamabad and met Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, but surprisingly, they did not talk about cricket at all.
Earlier, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sharif had met at Paris at a global summit, rekindling hope among fans. But it did not last long as that meeting did not yield any decision on the India-Pakistan series.
India are supposed to fly to Australia on 5 January, 2016, for a limited-over series and it is almost certain that the India vs Pakistan series will not take place on such a short notice.
