Former Pakistan Cricket Board chief Ramiz Raja has launched a fresh attack on India and BCCI for trying to curtail Pakistan cricket and this time he has blamed the influence of the ruling BJP government’s mindset for the same.
Raja, who was ousted from his position as PCB chief highlighted that he had planned to make Pakistan independent financially given that most of the resources of ICC are generated by Indian cricket and hence was being influenced by the BCCI.
He said that he also spoke to Australia and England cricket boards and asked them to take leadership roles at the ICC where the organization wouldn’t buckle under the pressure of money.
“Unfortunately, what’s happening with India is that there is this BJP mindset over there. The properties that I had announced, be it the PJL or the Pakistan Women’s League, were done so that we could have our own money-making assets that would fund the Pakistan Cricket Board, which would take us away from the ICC’s funding, which is crucial right now,” said Raja at an event in the Government College University Lahore.
He added: “Our independence gets compromised because most of ICC’s resources are created in India. If India’s mindset is to marginalise Pakistan then we remain neither here nor there.”
Raja said that BCCI is being influenced by the BJP mindset and trying to marginalize Pakistan cricket.
In October last year, BCCI secretary Jay Shah, who is also the ACC chief confirmed that Asia Cup, which is to be hosted by Pakistan in 2023, will be moved out of the country to a neutral venue, as the Indian team will not travel to Pakistan.
Ramiz Raja had threatened that if India doesn’t come to Pakistan for Asia Cup, then Pakistan might boycott the ODI World Cup which is to be hosted by India in 2023.
“I made my position clear on this. If the ACC has nominated us to hold an Asian tournament and if India says one fine day that we won’t go to Pakistan and the Asia Cup will also be taken from here, then all I said was that we have options too,” Raja added.
Furthermore, he recalled telling captain Babar Azam that ‘losing against India was not an option’ as this was the only option to raise the importance of Pakistani cricket.
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“We have to beat India because only then can we be in a stronger position to negotiate and only then can their narratives be killed,” said Raja.
Ramiz Raja, who was appointed PCB chief by former Pakistan PM Imran Khan in 2021, was ousted by current PM Shehbaz Sharif and replaced by Najam Sethi.
Talking about his removal as PCB chief, Raja said: “Entering from the backdoor by bulldozing the constitution and imposing someone on the cricket board – I feel this is unfair on everyone. Everything becomes rudderless. What is right or wrong gets lost in social media reports and I feel this needs to change.”
(The Indian Express inputs)
