NEW DELHI — India's cricket board said Tuesday it has secured government clearance to host Pakistan for a short tour later this year. The Board of Control for Cricket in India has invited Pakistan to play three one-dayers and two Twenty20 matches in December-January, the first bilateral contests between the arch-rivals in five years. “We have discussed all security aspects (and) the tour is on,” board spokesman Rajiv Shukla told reporters after a meeting between its officials and Indian Home Secretary R. K. Singh in New Delhi. A report by the Press Trust of India said the venues for the ODI games would most likely be Chennai, Kolkata and New Delhi, while the Twenty20 matches would take place in Bangalore and Ahmedabad. The rivals have not played a series since Pakistan's tour of India in 2007, after cricket ties were snapped following the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai. ‘D/N Tests now inevitable' Day-night Test cricket, possibly played with a pink, orange or yellow ball, is an inevitability now the way has been cleared for such matches, Cricket Australia (CA) chief James Sutherland said Tuesday. The International Cricket Council (ICC) decreed Monday that countries could agree to play day-night Tests and Sutherland said CA would put them on the agenda when negotiating all future tours to Australia. “Test cricket is by definition played on at least three week days, times when most people are at work or school, and this limits the ability of fans to attend or watch on TV,” he said in a news release. “We limit ourselves by staging cricket's premium format at times when fans often cannot watch.” Although he believes 50-over and Twenty20 cricket have proved that batting is possible under floodlights, Sutherland conceded finding a ball with the visibility for night play and the durability required for Tests was a stumbling block. — Agencies
