The Asian Cricket Council (ACC) has categorically termed Najam Sethi’s comments as ‘baseless’ after the PCB chairman took a sarcastic dig at ACC chairman Jay Shah, who is also the BCCI secretary after the ACC announced the pathway structure and calendar for 2023 and 2024.
On Thursday, Shah, announced the 2023 and 2024 calendar on his Twitter handle with the marquee Asia Cup competition slotted in September this year. The detailed itinerary and host country are yet to be officially announced.
However, there is still no confirmation where the Asia Cup 2023 will be hosted as the original hosts are Pakistan. However, Jay Shah, in October announced that India will not travel to Pakistan for the tournament and instead the Asia Cup will be moved out of Pakistan to a neutral venue.
This was done in 2018 as well when Pakistan refused to travel to India, who were to host the Asia Cup that year, and the tournament was instead played in UAE.
However, former PCB chief Ramiz Raja went on a warpath with Shah and ACC, threatening to boycott the 2023 ODI World Cup which is to be played in India if the Men in Blue didn’t come to Pakistan for Asia Cup.
In response to Jay Shah announcing the ACC roadmap and calendar for 2023 and 2024 which saw India and Pakistan grouped together for the Asia Cup tournament, Sethi posted a sarcastic tweet and took a dig at Jay Shah for dictating things in Asian cricket.
“Thank you Jay Shah for unilaterally presenting ACC structure & calendars 2023-24 especially relating to Asia Cup 2023 for which Pakistan is the event host. While you are at it, you might as well present structure & calendar of our PSL 2023! A swift response will be appreciated," Sethi quoted Shah’s tweet.
On Friday, ACC gave the swift response Sethi had asked for and in the statement, said that the calendar was approved by its Development Committee and Finance & Marketing Committee in a meeting held on December 13th, 2022.
The ACC statement further added: “It has come to our knowledge that PCB Chairman Mr Najam Sethi has made a comment on the ACC President unilaterally taking the decision on finalising the calendar and announcing the same. The ACC wants to clarify that it has followed well established and due process. The calendar was approved of by its Development Committee and Finance & Marketing Committee in a meeting held on December 13th, 2022.”
“The calendar was then communicated to all the participating members individually, including Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), via an email dated December 22nd, 2022. While responses were received from certain Member Boards, no comments or suggested modifications were received from PCB,” it added.
"In view of the above, Mr. Sethi’s comments on a social media platform are baseless and are vehemently denied by the ACC," the statement read.
Asia Cup 2023 is scheduled to be a six-team competition featuring Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka, and a qualifier. Sri Lanka is the defending champions.
(ACC inputs)
