India should tour Pakistan early next year to defeat terrorism: Butt

Lahore, Nov 29 (UNI) Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief Ijaz Butt has said India should come here early next year for Test and One-day International matches ''to give a clear cut message that the terrorists who are active on both sides of the border will never achieve their targets''.

While acknowledging that the scenario has changed dramatically following the shocking terrorist attacks in Mumbai this week, Butt told newspersons yesterday that he is still clinging to the hope that India's tour of Pakistan beginning early in January will go on as scheduled.

''I must say that India should come here and play the series.

That would be a clear cut message to the terrorists that they will never achieve their targets,'' Butt said.

India are scheduled to play three Tests, five One-day Internationals and a Twenty20 International in Pakistan in January-February next year.

However, the tour was already in doubt because of security apprehensions.

Butt was scheduled to fly to India on December 2 to convince BCCI officials that their players will be safe in Pakistan. However, the PCB chairman was forced to cancel the visit in the wake of the mayhem in Mumbai that left at least 140 people dead and hundreds other injured.

The former Pakistan Test opener said he would be meeting BCCI president Shashank Manohar on the sidelines of an Asian Cricket Council (ACC) moot in Colombo on December 5.

Butt said cricket has been badly affected because of the Mumbai massacre, pointing out that England's last two One-day Internationals in India were abandoned while the Indian cricket board postponed the inaugural Champions League Twenty20 event which was supposed to tee off from December 3.

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