Khan: Pakistan can ‘survive’ without India

Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Shaharyar Khan is hopeful that India will one day agree to play them in a bilateral series, but says Pakistan can 'survive' if that doesn't come to pass.

With political tensions between the nations an ongoing problem, it has continued to spill over into sport, and India have refused for the past eight years to face Pakistan in a series between just the two sides.

There had been a Memorandum of Understanding between the boards, the PCB and the BCCI, that they would rectify this, starting with a series in the UAE in December this year, but it appears that is not the case, with Khan calling the situation 'bleak'.

He told Cricinfo: "Given the present circumstance, the chances of a Pakistan-India series look bleak and we have to live with the fact that India are not going to play us.

"At the same time the BCCI hasn't formally refused us, but we can't wait long amid this uncertainty and have got to have an alternative plan. We will wait for another couple of months before forcing our plan B.

"I hope the climate will improve but at the moment it's more a political tension – the relationship between the countries is complex but cricket shouldn't be suffering, it is after all something that can be a tool to lower the tension."

Khan added of the financial implications of the embargo: "We understand the BCCI is financially very sound and we are the ones who have suffered a lot in all this.

"It's not that we can't survive without playing them. We are surviving, and can survive, but our position is that the game shouldn't be mixed up with the politics.

"So we are trying to get the series revived based on the MOU they have signed with us. They have to honour it and if they don't it's their responsibility."

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