The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has finally decided to take its compensation claim case against the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to the disputes resolution committee of the International Cricket Council (ICC).
The Indian and Pakistan cricket boards, in 2014, had signed MoUs for six bilateral series to be played between 2015 and 2023 with Pakistan hosting four of them. However, the MoU has not been implemented due to the escalating political tensions between the two neighbours. The arch-rivals have not played a full bilateral Test series since 2007 when Pakistan visited India for three Tests and five One-Day Internationals. They played a short series of three ODIs and two T20s in India in December 2012 but otherwise, both have faced each other only in the ICC organised events or the Asia Cup.
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And with India not playing bilateral series against the country from across the border, the PCB has reportedly incurred a huge financial loss. The officials of both the boards had met in Dubai earlier this year to discuss the next course of action but nothing positive had come out. Consequently, the PCB is now looking to claim the compensation from its Indian counterpart.
An official source in the PCB told PTI that the Board Chairman Shaharyar Khan, Chairman of the Executive Committee, Najam Sethi and Chief Operating Officer Subhan Ahmad had held three separate meetings with the BCCI representatives last month in Birmingham and London. He also revealed that two of three meetings were attended by ICC chief executive Dave Richardson.
“At two of the meetings, ICC chief executive Dave Richardson was also present while the third meeting held on the sidelines of the ICC executive board meeting also featured ICC Chairman Shashank Manohar,” he said.
The source further said that the BCCI is not willing to pay the compensation because cutting the bilateral ties is not their but the Indian government’s decision.
“They said that since their government was not giving clearance for a series with Pakistan because of the political and diplomatic situation between the two countries there was no question of paying any compensation to the PCB,” the source said.
Revealing the amount a miffed PCB is looking to get from the BCCI, the source said that the PCB chairman had made it clear that the BCCI should have thought about the government’s decision while signing the MoU in 2014.
“He (Shaharyar Khan) said in the MoU, the BCCI had promised to play six bilateral series between 2015 and 2023 but had not played even one series as yet. The PCB chairman also made it clear that the PCB wanted a compensation of around 447 crore rupees from the BCCI for not playing bilateral cricket,” revealed the source.
He said that the PCB decided to take the case to ICC’s disputes resolution committee only after all the meetings ended without any concrete outcome.
“The BCCI had not responded to our notice of intent sent to them but they agreed to the meetings to find a solution and prevent the matter from going to the ICC disputes resolution committee. Unfortunately, all meetings have ended in a deadlock despite the presence of ICC officials,” he said.
“The fact is India has not played a bilateral series with us since 2007 and it has caused a lot of financial losses to Pakistan cricket,” the source added.