India vs Pakistan: Only One match to be played in England

The India vs Pakistan series in England will go ahead, but only with one instead of three matches to be now played. That game will be played on September 3 at Pride Park in Derby. This had to be done due to logistical reasons on the Pakistani side, the AIFF unable to push the dates back and it currently being the holy month of Ramazan.

A lot of rumours have made the rounds over the last couple of days why the Pakistanis are facing logistical problems. With UK-based TouchSky Sports funding the complete travel, accommodation and even a match fee for both the Pakistani Football Federation and the All India Football Federation; it seems the issue of obtaining UK visas was the real problem behind the request to delay the tour.

But with the Indian Federation Cup starting on September 17 the AIFF was in no position to push the original tour dates of August 25 to September 13 any further back and on the other side the AIFF did not want to completely call off the tour. So a compromise was worked out that the one match would now be played on September 3.

The India vs Pakistan series in England titles 'Clash of the Totan' seems to be under no good light. The organisers had originally planned to play the three match series in June 2011, it was pushed back to July and then finally everything was in place for the series to be played in August/September. Matches had been finalised for August 28 in Manchester, September 3 in Derby and September 11 in London.

The good thing is there will be a match between India and Pakistan on English soil this summer. With the series on the verge of being called-off, at least one match will be played and that on an official FIFA match date.