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Updated November 18th, 2018 at 18:27 IST

BCCI skips Asian Cricket Council meeting in Lahore citing 'political situation and security concerns'

The BCCI didn't send its representative at the Annual General Meeting of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) held in Lahore on Saturday

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The BCCI didn't send its representative at the Annual General Meeting of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) held in Lahore on Saturday due to "security concerns" and existing political tension between neighbouring nations.

Although the BCCI skipped the meeting, the head of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), Nazmul Hassan took over as president of the ACC from Ehsan Mani till 2020.

A PCB official said that India was the only notable absentee from the meeting which was attended by 33 nations affiliated to the ACC, including full members like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. "Dave Richardson the CEO of the International Cricket Council also attended the meeting," he said.

"BCCI had conveyed to the PCB and ACC it was not in a position to attend the meeting due to existing political situation and security concerns. It is for the first time in the ACC history in 35 years that India has not attended a General Body meeting," said a PCB source.

Last month, newly appointed PCB chief Ehsan Mani had hit out India for its stand on bilateral series between India and Pakistan. The two teams have not played a bilateral series against each other since 2013 owing to the political climate in the two countries. Though, during this period, the two teams have faced off 10 times in an ICC or global event, most recently in Asia Cup 2018.

READ: PCB Chairman Attacks BCCI, Calls Indian Cricket Board's Stand On Bilateral Ties As 'hypocrisy'

But according to Ehsan Mani, cricket could improve relations. Speaking to ESPNcricinfo, the PCB chairman had said, 

"The main thing is that we play cricket against each other. When we play cricket, especially in our countries - when we go to India or when they come here - helps in increasing people-to-people contact. Indian fans come to Pakistan. Lakhs of fans have come to Pakistan from India and everyone goes back happy. There's no better way to improve the relations between countries than having sporting contacts, cultural contacts. For me, that is far more important than any amount of money that comes into the game. Indian public obviously love to see India and Pakistan playing, and so does the Pakistan public. Rest of the work is of the politicians and frankly, once India is in the lead-up to its elections next year, so I don't think there will be any softening in their attitude. But in the long term, the people want it and you can't go against the will of the people forever."

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Published November 18th, 2018 at 18:17 IST

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