Anurag Thakur and Rahul Johri in a press conference.
Anurag Thakur and Rahul Johri in a press conference.

Rahul Johri, the BCCI CEO who alongside Anurag Thakur attended the Asian Cricket Council meeting in Colombo, confirmed there is no possibility of a bilateral series between India and Pakistan in near future but there are slight chances of both countries taking on each other in a triangular or quadrangular tournament.

“There was no discussion on that (India-Pakistan match),” BCCI’s chief executive Rahul Johri told HT.

“The discussion took place on how to make the next Asia Cup (in 2018) bigger. There is some time to go for it, though. All the Boards CEOs will come back with their plans on how to increase revenue, the potential of the Asia Cup and of the ACC overall. All four (CEOs) will work together. (Pakistan Cricket Board’s CEO) Subhan (Ahmad) will lead it,” he added.

Indian team is scheduled to play Pakistan in the Champions Trophy 2017 and now its looks like they’ll play that game as earlier, Anurag Thakur said the BCCI would abandon the game and award Pakistan two points in case the ICC does not change the schedule. But now, it looks like the BCCI has changed its stand and will face Pakistan.

Earlier this month, Indian women’s team squared off against Pakistan in the Asia Cup played in Bangkok. Looking at this, it is clear the men’s team will also not be stopped from playing against Pakistan.

Johri also added the rest of associations stand in support of the BCCI, whose freedom has been curtailed by Lodha Committee and the Supreme Court.

“There was a lot of concern shown by the ACC boards about the BCCI. One of the things they reacted to was the treatment meted to the BCCI by the ICC. The ACC members were keen that the BCCI’s interest should not be harmed. If the BCCI is affected, global cricket is affected. Everybody is dependent on India.

“All cricket boards plan their calendar in advance. If the BCCI’s share goes down, then the BCCI’s long-term plans of developing the game would be impacted. When that gets impacted, there is a cascading effect on other boards. They (ACC members) have also communicated their views to the ICC,” concluded Johri.