India and Pakistan could soon play a bilateral Test series, according to Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ehsan Mani.

A report by The Indian Express said that PCB officials are pushing for a series in Dubai as early as next year, pending the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s approval.

“I met the Indian board officials on the sidelines of the Asian Cricket Council meetings and we had a productive discussion,” Mani told the daily. If approved, this series will not be part of the International Cricket Council’s new Test Championship cycle, continues the report.

The ICC had released its Future Tours Programme for 2018 to 2023 in June. The schedule incorporates all three formats of the game for the men’s teams across the period of five years. It also includes the schedule for the inaugural ICC World Test championship and the 13-team One-Day league.

The Indian cricket team will make its debut in the Test Championship in July 2019 against West Indies on their turf. The nine top-ranked Test teams will participate in the inaugural edition of the championship, which will run from July 15, 2019 to April 30, 2021.

“The Test Championship is apparently in two cycles,” Mani added. “For the 2019-’21 cycle, they have already made their calendar. But I’m assured by the ICC that in the second cycle from 2021-’23, Pakistan and India are scheduled to play each other.”

Cricketing ties between India and Pakistan have been frayed because of political tension between the two countries. The two teams have not played a bilateral series since late 2012, when Pakistan toured India for a limited-over series. They have only clashed in multi-team events such as the Asia Cup, Champions Trophy and the World Cup. The last Test series between the two teams was held in India in 2007.

Mani, the former ICC president, was asked whether new Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s tweet on the Indian government will hamper talks of cricket. Mani said that politics should be kept away from sport, citing the example of cricket between the two countries after the Kargil war in 1999.

“First of all, Imran Khan’s tweet was a reaction to what happened in India,” Mani was quoted as saying by the Times of India. “These kinds of statements should not be treated in isolation. The two boards should not fight amongst each other based on the political situation between the two countries.

He added, “One should not forget we also had the Kargil war. Yet, the two boards never stopped having healthy dialogues. I remember how my colleagues from India – Jagmohan Dalmiya and Raj Singh Dungarpur – worked towards having India-Pakistan matches. And then we had a series in 2004.”

On the PCB’s compensation case filed against the BCCI for “dishonouring” a Memorandum of Understanding on bilateral cricket, Mani said the case could have been sorted out of court.