Cricket row escalating? Pak EC team cancels India visit

The tension between India and Pakistan over the boycott of Pakistani players by IPL franchisees threatened to turn into a full-scale stand off with Pakistan on Saturday cancelling the trip of their top election officials to India.

Justice Hamid Ali Mirza, Pakistan's chief election commissioner, and his delegation cancelled their participation in the Election Commission of India's diamond jubilee celebrations that begins on Monday.

The pull-out showed that Pakistan continues to smart under what it believes was a concerted Indian snub to its cricket stars who did not get picked up at the IPL auction.

It was the third retaliatory measure by Pakistan which had earlier cancelled trips of its parliamentarians and kabaddi team to India.

Coming after the Indian government as well as the political parties here dismissed Pakistan's protests with the advice to the neighbour to "look within" for the reasons for its players being given the cold shoulder, Islamabad's clamps on trips can increase the strain on the already tense bilateral ties.

Islamabad said it would cancel trips until India made amends. With the Indian government meanwhile, refusing to take responsibility and saying Pakistan had to make a distinction in issues where the government of India was connected and where it was an actor, the possibility of a freeze on contacts looks real.

Rejecting Pakistan's protests, the government has clarified that it had given visas at short notice to 17 Pakistani players to participate in the auction.

Pakistan, however, is not convinced. "It is clear that the decision to not include Pakistani players was influenced by variables extraneous to sports," its foreign office has said.

On Saturday, the EC received a missive from its Pakistan counterpart calling off the visit due to "unavoidable circumstances" though even until Friday, the EC here was sure they were coming. Officials say it was very clear that the visit was being called off because Pakistan had decided to shun India in the wake of the IPL-3 auction.

Apart from Mirza, the Pakistani EC delegation consisted of Ishtiyaque Amin Khan, secretary of the Election Commission of Pakistan, and Saeed Ahmed Khan, protocol officer, ECP. Two members of parliament were also to be the part of delegation.