Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has coughed up a significant amount of fortune after their ploy to sue India backfired miserably. Due to escalating political tensions, both the countries have not played a full bilateral Test series since 2007 when Pakistan last 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 in the Asia Cup.
The PCB, however, was not happy with their Indian counterparts for not honouring the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the two boards in 2014. As per the deal, the two countries were set to play six senior series between 2014-2023, subject to clearance from the government. However, the Indian government did not give BCCI the green light and consequently, the Indian cricket board could not resume bilateral ties. Moreover, the BCCI had already confirmed the MoU was not legally binding.
A miffed PCB had then filed a compensation case against the BCCI last year before the ICC’s Dispute Resolution Committee for an amount of around USD 70 million.
PCB chief Ehsan Mani has now confirmed that the board has paid the BCCI approximately USD 1.6 million as compensation after losing the case. Mani insisted that besides the amount paid to India to cover the costs of the case the other expenses were related to legal fees and travelling.
“We incurred costs of around USD 2.2 million on the compensation case which we lost,” Mani said.
“The ICC committee did accept that Pakistan had a case and that is why the damages/cost we had to pay to the Indian board was around USD 1.6 million,” Mani said.
Meanwhile, the ICC has confirmed that India and Pakistan are obliged to play each other in the upcoming World Cup. There were doubts that India would boycott Pakistan in the wake of the Pulwama attack. However, ICC chief Dave Richardson has revealed that both the nations along with others have signed an agreement to play all the games in the tournament.