We Don’t Like our Member Countries Fighting Each Other, Says Dave Richardson on India-Pakistan Relation

Sep 14, 2017 at 10:41 AM

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We Don’t Like our Member Countries Fighting Each Other, Says Dave Richardson on India-Pakistan Relation

With ICC CEO Dave Richardson in Pakistan to attend the second game of the ongoing series between the hosts and World XI, he got bombarded with questions regarding the bilateral relation between India and Pakistan.

The current series is the first step towards the resumption of international cricket in Pakistan where no international team except Zimbabwe in 2015 had toured the country since 2009 when militants attacked the Sri Lankan team bus in 2009.

But while Richardson began interacting with the journalists on the resumption of international cricket in Pakistan, the conversation soon shifted towards the much-talked about bilateral series between India and Pakistan.

The arch-rivals had 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. Any hopes of seeing them resuming bilateral ties in coming days are looking bleak as of now.

When asked about the possibility of seeing both the teams playing bilateral series, Richardson said:

“When it comes to ICC events, there’s no question if India are drawn against Pakistan they will play. On the question of bilateral series between the countries, not only India-Pakistan, all bilateral series are agreed upon on a bilateral basis as well.

“I understand that the conditions between the two countries are not exactly as rosy as it could be. The BCCI at the moment along with their government doesn’t believe it’s time for them to play Pakistan. I also know that the PCB have been talking to the BCCI for a number of years in trying to arrange tours whether to Pakistan, in Dubai or anywhere else. That process is a work in progress. At the moment, the ICC’s role in this is to facilitate; we don’t like our member countries fighting each other. We have a process to deal with it, and we’ll need to let the process run its course,” Richardson added.

With the PCB claiming that India are not honouring the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and the ICC not taking any step against the latter, there are perceptions in Pakistan that the governing body of the game is favouring India more than Pakistan.

However, Richardson, while admitting that ‘India has a very very strong voice at the ICC’, quashed the perceptions.

“I don’t think it is true,” he stated. “The fact is India is a very powerful cricketing country. Because of the Indian people’s love for cricket, it is very powerful. By the nature of that, India has a very very strong voice at the ICC. In theory, though that shouldn’t give any more power than any other country. We at the ICC don’t value India more than anyone else.”

Meanwhile, Najam Sethi, the PCB chairman, is hopeful that a something positive will come out soon regarding India-Pakistan cricketing ties.

“We had a last meeting with the Indians, under the chairmanship of current ICC president Mr Shashank Manohar. That process is over now. Now the next stage will begin. Within a month or two months, that process will go back to the ICC, and we have given a letter already asking for a three-member board to be nominated, and this process is very active,” Sethi said.

The PCB has claimed that it had signed MoU with the BCCI in 2014 for six bilateral series to be played between 2015 and 2023 with Pakistan to host four of them after getting the clearance from the government. However, with the government not giving BCCI the go ahead, the Indian board has failed to honour the agreement.

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