No possibility of Pakistan's tour to India next year

There is no chance of an India-Pakistan bilateral series next year in March on Indian soil, as indicated by the Future Tours Programme, since the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) has announced the Asia Cup during the same time in Dhaka.

The ACC at a meeting earlier this week in Singapore decided that the tournament will be held March 12-22.

"It was agreed that the Asia Cup 2012 would go ahead on the proposed dates," Subhan Ahmed, the PCB chief operating officer, told ESPNcricinfo. "There was discussion of the ACC postponing the Asia Cup if both India and Pakistan agreed to play their series within that slot but that idea has faded out for many reasons."

The ACC, however, said it would consider Pakistan's proposal to host the tournament in 2014, pending a discussion and satisfaction with security and other issues.

"Our request has been endorsed and was not turned down. They want a full discussion on the precautionary steps that the PCB (Pakistan Cricket Board) will take to ensure security. We obviously assured them the best and the case has been deferred until next meeting," said Ahmed.

The PCB was hoping to re-build cricketing ties with India and work out a possibility of the two countries playing each other again. However, due to the absence of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president N.Srinivasan during the ACC meeting, the issue could not be sorted out.

BCCI's chief administrative officer Ratnakar Shetty, who was representing the Indian board at the meeting, was not able to give any assurances to his Pakistani counterpart.

"Pakistan-India series was not on the agenda at the ACC meeting but we were looking forward to Srinivasan coming across to discuss it," Ahmed said.

"We had an ideal platform here to talk with our India counterpart but he (Srinivasan) didn't attend the meeting. He (Shetty) was not in a position to talk on it. So, I don't think India and Pakistan could play e