The Cricket Benefit Fund Series, organiser of the tri-nation cricket tournament at Sharjah, has indicated that it would prefer India playing in the series rather than Pakistan, if the Indian government did not clear the team's participation in the tournament in keeping with its policy of not playing against Pakistan.

Pakistani media on Thursday reported rumours that CBFS was considering a secret deal with the Pakistan Cricket Board under which PCB would be paid double its guarantee money for withdrawing from the April event.

Under the deal the Pakistan team would be asked to announce its withdrawal from the tournament complaining about the uncertainty of India's participation, the reports said. There is no official comment from PCB yet on this story. Meanwhile, with some senior Pakistan players making serious complaints about the captaincy of Moin Khan, specially during the recently concluded one day series against New Zealand, PCB has asked for a report from manager Faqir Azazuddin before selecting the team for Sharjah.

© PTI