‘No third party should have intervened in Indo-Pak series’

Mumbai: Former Pakistan captain Asif Iqbal believes the resumption of bilateral series between India and Pakistan should have been done without the intervention of a third party.

Giles Clarke, the former England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chairman acted as a mediator between the BCCI boss (Shashank Manohar) and PCB officials (Shaharyar Khan and Nazam Sethi) to break the ice.

Without directly naming Clarke, Iqbal says, "Hope we start playing against each other regularly and it would be nice for both the cricketing boards sit together and discuss and decide without a third party brokering the deal and taking the credit".

Clarke is one of the members of ICC's Big Three.

PTT wrapped up

He was also a chairman of ICC's Pakistan Task Team (PTT).

"PTT has been wrapped up a few years ago and is no longer in existence. I believe this was done because the board of ICC, to whom it reported, felt that its work had been done,” informs a well-placed source.

"The PTT provided its report to the Board in late 2011 I seem to recall,” the source added further.

"(I am) delighted to learn that the series between the two most popular cricketing neighbours is going to be played after all. It would have been ideal if it is a Test series but still something is better than nothing,” adds Iqbal.