Modi wants to improve relations with Pakistan through cricket diplomacy despite criticism

NEW DELHI (Web Desk/Agencies) - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi late on Tuesday announced a decision to start a Pakistan-India cricket series to improve relations, Indian media reported.

“We have taken the decision to start a cricket series between both countries to improve our relations,” said Modi on Tuesday during a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) parliamentary party meeting, a BJP MP who was present told on the condition of anonymity.

Despite apprehensions raised by some BJP MPs about a proposed cricket series, Modi is determined to break the ice, sources said.

Earlier on Sunday, the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Shahryar Khan had said that Pakistan wants to host the first bilateral Test tour by India in eight years in the United Arab Emirates in December.

The tour, comprising three Tests, five one-dayers and two Twenty20 games is part of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between the two boards last year to play five series in the next eight years.

"We want to resume India-Pakistan series in the UAE," Khan told reporters after a meeting with Indian cricket chief Jagmohan Dalmiya in Kolkata on Sunday.