The Pakistan Cricket Board president Zaka Ashraf welcomed the initiative on the part of BCCI to resume bilateral cricket ties with a series in India in December.

PCB chairman Zaka Ashraf told reporters in Lahore that the BCCI President N Srinivasan had called him up to confirm about the three match ODI and two T20 Internationals.

 

"The BCCI has said that they have a time slot available in December after Christmas and in early January as they are hosting England as well," Ashraf said.

 

"We are delighted with this invitation and development and see it as a big ice-breaker in revival of bilateral ties between the two countries."

 

"The series will also help improve relations between the two countries. The BCCI invitation is the result of some really hard work put in by both boards in the last few months to resume bilateral ties and what is welcome is both governments have also supported revival of bilateral ties," Ashraf said.

 

A smiling Ashraf who initiated a proactive campaign to convince the BCCI to resume ties soon after he took over as chairman in October 2011 said that his visits to India had proved very helpful in breaking the ice.

 

"I realized we could make progress when the BCCI invited us to send our domestic T20 team for the Champions League this year," he said.

 

India had frozen all bilateral cricket ties with Pakistan after the Mumbai terror attacks in November, 2008. The last time both countries played a bilateral series was in 2007 in India and since than although they have met in ICC events but not on bilateral level.

 

"I am sure millions of cricket fans in both countries will be happy with this decision," Ashraf said and added "Indo-Pak cricket ties are also important for the promotion of the sport internationally."