The Centre rejected stories on cricket that includes in talks between Exterior Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his Pakistani counterpart Ishaq Dar in Islamabad. The Ministry of Exterior Affairs in its briefing stated the “stories should not correct”. 

The Centre stated no bilateral assembly occurred through the SCO summit besides with Mongolia. MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal stated “No pull apart assembly came about both”, solely “basic talks occurred throughout dinner and nothing else.” S Jaishankar and Ishaq Dar reportedly sat subsequent to one another throughout lunch.

Earlier, stories surfaced that Mr Jaishankar and Mr Dar had met and talked a few doable India-Pakistan cricket match quickly. The 2 cricketing rivals haven’t performed any bilateral collection since 2012 when Pakistan toured India for a T20I and ODI collection.

In the meantime, India has not performed any match in Pakistan because the 2008 Asia Cup because of tensions between the 2 international locations arising out of the Mumbai terror assaults. Pakistan has made three excursions to India since 2008 however India hasn’t despatched its staff to Pakistan because of safety considerations.

The 2 groups have performed towards one another in ICC tournaments in India and overseas, however Pakistan desires India to ship its staff for the ICC Champions Trophy, set to be hosted by the neighbouring nation subsequent February.

Prime officers of the England and Wales Cricket Board had not too long ago advised the PCB that organising the Champions Trophy with out India could be meaningless since it might influence the ICC’s income.

Mr Jaishankar was in Islamabad for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) assembly of Heads of Authorities, which marked the primary Pakistan go to by an Indian overseas minister since 2015.

Throughout his go to, Mr Jaishankar met Prime Minister Sharif on the multilateral occasion however didn’t maintain any bilateral with Pakistan. Mr Jaishankar had clarified that India-Pakistan ties will not characteristic throughout his Islamabad go to because it was for the SCO summit.

On the SCO summit, he delivered a powerful and veiled message aimed toward Pakistan, stating that cooperation in areas like commerce is unlikely to flourish if cross-border actions are characterised by terrorism.