Newly-appointed Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Ehsan Mani, has vowed on Tuesday (4 September) to push Pakistan’s case at the International Cricket Councils’ dispute committee against the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for pulling out of two bilateral series next month.
The ongoing legal dispute between the PCB and BCCI will be heard by the ICC dispute committee, between 1 to 3 October, which will take place under Hon Michael Beloff QC in Dubai.
PCB are claiming up to USD 70 million in revenue from BCCI after their arch-rivals cancelled two bilateral series - in November 2014 and December 2015 claiming political tensions. Since then, they have met in the 2015 Cricket World Cup, 1016 Asia Cup and 2017 Champions Trophy. Both teams are next scheduled to meet in the upcoming Asia Cup 2018 to be held in the United Arab Emirates this September.
As per reports in ESPN Cricinfo, Mani told reporters in a press conference, “I can tell you I will not request India to play with us. Their (Indian) policy has been overall contradicting, because they are always ready to play in multinational tournaments like Asia Cup and World Cup but pulls out on bilateral arrangements. If it was at an earlier stage, I could have sat with the BCCI at the table to sort this out, but the process has started and gone too far to be pulled back.”
The PCB chief further added, “So I never understood their positions and the basis of their policy. Even when I was at the ICC, they used to threaten pulling out on ICC tournaments. I told them that I could suspend their membership but in my position here, I obviously can't do that. The ICC, since then, has been quite different, with India's influence far greater, but I will fight Pakistan's corner.”
Mani, who has considerable cricket administration experience, as he previously represented Pakistan on the International Cricket Council from 1996-2002, as well as, served as ICC president from 2003-06 would like to tweak the PCB constitution to reduce the power of the chairman.
The PCB chief signed off by saying, “Everywhere in the world it doesn’t happen like this, so we have to tweak the constitution. The whole system should run only for cricketers, and the importance of the chairman and board members will be toned down.”
