India’s living cricketing legend Mahendra Singh Dhoni has said that it was purely a policy decision to be made by the BJP-ruled Centre abut reviving cricket between neighbours and arch rivals India and Pakistan.

Dhoni was at terrorism-infested Baramulla in Jammu & Kashmir yesterday to watch the final of the cricket tournament organized by the Army at Yuri in Baramulla.  More than 110 cricket teams vied for honours at the tournament which ended with yesterday’s final witnessed by M.S. Dhoni, India’s world cup winning cricket captain and who only plays ODIs and T20 matches now as a player.

Made a honorary ‘Lieutenant Colonel’ by the Indian Army, Dhoni was in military attire when he watched the final and provided some much needed inputs and tips to budding cricketers who were keen to shake hands and get selfies clicked with him. Later, addressing newsmen, Dhoni said that whenever India and Pakistan played a cricket series, it meant much beyond cricket.

“It is for the Centre to decide about reviving cricketing ties with neighbouring Pakistan,” Dhoni said in what was his second visit to Jammu & Kashmir after he was conferred the honorary post of ‘Lieutenant Colonel’ by the Indian Army in 2011. It may be recalled that Dhoni was near the border with Pakistan as he addressed armymen at a military base in 2012.