The fixture was originally scheduled for Thursday, December 27 but the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) requested the BCCI to reschedule the game as the fifth death anniversary of the country’s Pakistan Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, falls on that date. Ms. Bhutto was assassinated in Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007.
“The game will now be played on Friday, 28 December 2012. The rest of the itinerary is unchanged,” a BCCI media release by its Honorary Secretary, Sanjay Jagdale, said.
The PCB chairman Zaka Ashraf has, meanwhile, thanked his Indian counterpart N Srinivasan for responding positively to their request for postponement of Ahmedabad fixture.
"Zaka Ashraf has sent a letter to Mr Srinivasan thanking him for this gesture," Pakistan Cricket Board’s media manager Nadeem Sarwar told PTI on Saturday.
"The PCB chairman is grateful that the Indian board responded positively to his request although the BCCI had already printed tickets for the match on Dec 27th," added the PCB media manager.
Besides the two T20 Internationals, the Pakistan cricket team is also scheduled to play three One Day Internationals against MS Dhoni and Co in what will be their first bilateral series against the reigning World Champions in more than five years. The five-match limited-overs series between the two Asian cricketing giants will be hosted by Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Kolkata and Delhi, between December 25 and January 6, 2013.
Cricketing relations between India and Pakistan have been on hold since 2007, in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks in November 2008. The last time the archrivals had played each other in a bilateral series was in December 2007, when Pakistan toured India. The Men in Blue were scheduled to tour Pakistan the next year but the BCCI called off the itinerary after Indian government suspected involvement from across the border in the deadly Mumbai attacks.
Pakistan cricket team will arrive in Bangalore, India, on Sunday, December 22.
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