New Delhi - Indian Sports Minister Manohar Singh Gill Friday opposed the national cricket squad's tour to Pakistan in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, a news report said. It was not the right time to play cricket with Pakistan when "people from their soil were indulging in mass murder in India," the Press Trust of India news agency quoted Gill as saying.
The Indian government is yet to clear the cricket team's January 6 to February 19 tour to Pakistan.
"Is it possible for one team to arrive in Mumbai and indulge in mass murder, and have another team go and play cricket in the winter afternoon sun at Lahore, immediately after," Gill said.
New Delhi has blamed Pakistan-based militant groups for the attacks on India's financial capital which left 173 dead, including nine terrorists, and more than 300 injured.
Gill's remarks come a day after the Pakistan Cricket Board's chairman Ejaz Butt arrived in India to hold discussions with officials from the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
In a related development, deputy home minister Sri Prakash Jaiswal told reporters in Delhi that the Home Ministry will take a final call on the issue shortly. Senior BCCI official Rajeev Shukla said the board was waiting for the decision from the Government.
