KARACHI: After resuming cricket ties after five years, hockey teams from Pakistan and India are set to do the same.
The Greenshirts are scheduled to tour India in March while the Indian hockey team is expected to come to Pakistan in May. The details of the series will be sorted out during a meeting between the two parties later this week.
Sport ties between the two countries turned sour after the 2008 Mumbai attacks.However, relations have improved recently with the Pakistan cricket team currently playing in India and nine players from Pakistan set to participate in the Hockey India League (HIL) in India next year.
Hockey India (HI) secretary-general Narinder Batra and Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) chief Asif Bajwa are set to meet in Lahore, Pakistan on December 29.
“On the invitation of PHF I am going to Pakistan for a two-day trip on December 29. During the meeting we will discuss the modalities of the resumption of bilateral hockey ties between the two nations,” the Press Trust of India (PTI) quoted Batra as saying.
“If everything goes as per plan Pakistan will tour India at the end of March next year for five Test matches. Then India will visit Pakistan in May for another five Tests,” he added.
Pakistan and India last played a bilateral series in 2006 but have met in international tournaments.