Pak cricket team allowed to travel to India for World T20

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan´s Interior Ministry has cleared the national cricket team to travel to India for the World Twenty20 after getting the full security assurances from Indian authorities following concerns about player safety, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said on Friday.

Pakistan had earlier said its men´s and women´s teams would travel to India only after New Delhi gave a public guarantee on the safety of its players.

"The interior minister has given permission to send the Pakistan cricket team to play the World T20 on the basis of solid assurances received from chief minister of West Bengal and the union home secretary and the home minister (in India)," PCB executive committee chairman Najam Sethi told reporters.

"The team is completely ready and hopefully they will fly to Dubai tonight and then from there will leave straight for India," Sethi added.

Chairman Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Shaharyar Khan informed media that the interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan officially permitted the PCB to send the cricket team to India for participating in the World Twenty20 tournament.

Earlier, Najam Sethi, head PCB executive committee told media that the board had received Thursday night assurances from the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) for give the Pakistan team a full security.

Later on Friday, Pakistan high commissioner in India was assured by Indian home secretary Rajnath Singh to provide a foolproof security to Pakistan cricket team.

Chief minister West Bengal Mamata Banerjee also assured Pakistan ambassador to give full security to the team.

Subsequently, Najam Sethi called on federal interior minister and briefed him about the whole situation and also showed him correspondence between the PCB and the BCCI after which the minister decided to allowed to send the team to India.

PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan told reporters in Lahore that the players were given the pullout option if they felt any security threat but all 15 squad members wanted to play in the tournament.

"We want cricketing ties to remain active.Our hope is that our cricketing relations (between India and Pakistan) remain intact," Khan said.