India cancels cricket tour of Pakistan

The Indian cricket team's tour of Pakistan next month has been cancelled.

The decision was announced by the Indian Minister of Sport, Uma Bharati, who said that relations between the two countries were hardly conducive to maintaining sporting ties.

It would have been the Indian side's first tour of Pakistan in eleven years, but observers say there was not much surprise at the cancellation, as the two sides have not played each other since a border conflict over Kashmir last year.

This is the second time in three months that the Indian government has refused to clear a cricket series against Pakistan.

There's been an angry reaction from the Pakistan Cricket Board.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service