India is not averse to dropping Ahmedabad as a Test venue for Pakistan's upcoming tour, a top cricket official said here on Tuesday. "We have to find a solution that is acceptable to everyone," Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Karunakaran Nair said AFP after Pakistan rejected Ahmedabad as the venue for the second Test on their tour commencing February 25.
"We have to keep our options open in an effort to thrash out the issue at the earliest," said Nair.
"Pakistan have objected to Ahmedabad due to security concerns but we don't have any alternatives in mind yet," he added.
The southern Indian city of Madras was being tipped as a likely replacement for the match but Nair said this was pure speculation.
"It is too early to talk about other options as the board's programmes and fixtures committee has to first agree on an alternate venue and then forward it to the Pakistan board," he said.
Nair was confident things would be sorted out in plenty of time for Pakistan's first full tour of India in six years during which they will play three Tests and five one-dayers apart from two other tour games.
"We are in touch with Pakistan cricket officials in an effort to sort things out at the earliest and will then seek a final approval from the sports ministry," Nair said.
India last month proposed the western city of Ahmedabad, where at least 2,000 people died in bloody Hindu-Muslim sectarian riots in 2002, as a Test venue.
The southern metropolis of Bangalore and the northern city of Mohali are the other proposed Test venues while Kochi, Visakhapatnam, Kanpur, Jamshedpur and New Delhi are the proposed venues for the one-day series.
The two countries resumed bilateral cricket ties in March-April last year when the Indian team made their first full tour of Pakistan in almost 15 years, winning both the Test and one-day series.