Senior official of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Rajiv Shukla has recommended that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) work towards developing a safe venue at home instead of continuing to play its “home” series in UAE.

Shukla, who is also Chairman of the Indian Premier League (IPL), said Pakistan would 'suffer' if it did not take steps to ensure proper security at home.

“If Pakistan continues to play in UAE, its cricket will suffer. Lahore can easily be made into a safe venue,” Shukla said while talking to Geo News.

“If PCB develops Lahore into a safe venue by constructing a team hotel near the stadium and by providing adequate security, then India will have no objection to playing in the city,” he said.

But Shukla clarified that India would only be ready to play in Lahore if the PCB gave the ICC satisfactory security guarantee and other member boards had no objection in playing there either.

“If Lahore is made a safe venue then everyone will come and play there,” said Shukla.

Shukla admitted there was a MoU that the two boards signed last year but noted that a deal was reached when the leadership of the ICC and BCCI was different.

“Now our current president wants Pakistan and India to play against each other but in each other’s countries,” he added.

“We are saying this time come and play in India we are ready to compensate for the home series losses. We will give bigger participation fees and when things improve in Pakistan we will go there and play one or two series. We have no issues,” he said.

Shukla insisted that Pakistan should not worry about the security situation in India as the hosts would provide ample security and also compensate the PCB well.

“I don’t think this is a big issue … why make an ego issue of it and insist on playing in Dubai only,” he stated.

Shukla offered a dead bat when asked why the BCCI was unwilling to send its team to the UAE considering that a part of the 2014 IPL season was played there.

Shukla said the BCCI had its policies and was not too bothered by the fact that other international teams were playing in UAE.

“We have our own policy. We don’t care about what other countries do and what their policy is,” he said.

“We want resumption of cricket ties with Pakistan,” added Shukla insisting that when the PCB delegation visited Mumbai, the Shiv Sena activists had not 'bothered' them.

“They came to the Wankhede stadium and spoke to the BCCI President and they raised slogans but they didn’t bother the PCB officials.”

Shukla maintained that the PCB and Pakistan government needed to 'sit together' and make Lahore a safe venue and invite teams to play there.

“If one incident happened does it mean there should be no cricket in Pakistan,” he said referring to the attack on the Sri Lankan team in March 2009 after which top Test teams have refused to tour Pakistan because of security concerns.

“I would say build on the success of the tour by Zimbabwe to Lahore.”