Indian government will take a call on travelling to Pakistan for Champions Trophy: Rajeev Shukla

BCCI vice-president Rajeev Shukla on Monday said that the Indian government will take the call on whether the national team would travel to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy, scheduled to be played from February 19 to March 9.

“No decision has been taken on it. But our policy is that for international tours, we always seek permission from the government. It’s up to the government to decide whether or not our team should go to any country,” Shukla told reporters.

“Whatever the government will decide, we will abide by that,” he said, adding there is no deadline given to the BCCI by ICC to take a call on this matter.

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India and Pakistan only play each other in ICC events. India has not travelled to Pakistan for bilateral cricket since the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. Pakistan travelled to India for the ODI World Cup last year after a gap of seven years.

The BCCI vice-president said the IPL mega auction will be held towards the end of November and the decision on the venue is yet to be made.

“We are finalising the venue, most probably the IPL auction will take place towards the end of November. All the options are open for hosting the auction, whether in India or abroad. Last time it happened in Dubai. People abroad enjoy such events a lot more,” he said.

Shukla, who doesn’t hold any administrative position in the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UPCA), said that Green Park would continue to host international matches due to BCCI’s rotation policy despite poor drainage facilities resulting in more than two days of play being lost in the ongoing Test against Bangladesh.

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“Criticism is one thing we are used to. I was criticised when the match was given to Kanpur and when this (poor drainage) happened, I was again criticised. It was the first time in 80 years that because of rain, we couldn’t host the match for two days,” he said.

“The rotation policy is enforced every year. Kanpur is one of the country’s premier Test venues. This Test match was given as per the rotation policy. There’s an appetite in smaller cities and venues to watch the game. The turnout in bigger cities is low because they get a lot of matches. Tier B cities enjoy Test matches,” Shukla added.

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