BCCI will have final say on whether they play Pakistan in bilateral series or not

The International Cricket Council (ICC) Annual Conference saw the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) earn a big moral victory over the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). The ICC conference saw the constitution of the ICC being modified. Now, as per the latest modifications, the ICC will not interfere in the talks and matters of the BCCI and PCB regarding the bilateral series.

In the recent times, the PCB has been trying hard to convince India to play Pakistan in a bilateral series. They have accused their Indian counterparts for no honoring the MoU signed in 2014 wherein the two teams had agreed to play multiple bilateral series. PCB had been crying foul play by the Indian board and had cited that they have suffered huge losses due to the avoidance shown by the Indian cricket board.

They had also threatened the Indian board to move the matters to the ICC meetings. But now, as per the reports in Times of India, all of this brouhaha from the PCB comes to a standstill. A top official of the BCCI noted that the ICC has agreed not to interfere in this matter. Hence, from now on, it will solely be India’s call to decide whether they wish to play Pakistan in a bilateral series or not.

“We can now decide whether we want to play Pakistan or not. If we don’t want to play Pakistan in a bilateral series, no one can force us and neither will ICC interfere in any form. Therefore, it will now be our call,” the official quoted.

Another moral win

Another mini moral win for the BCCI in the meeting was in regard to the grievance redressal forum. They wanted the neutral members to be making the calls and not just the involved boards (PCB in this case).

“Normally, it constitutes of representatives of member boards which deals with grievance related issues. We wanted that all members in the redressal forum should be neutral. That has been accepted by the ICC. This will also help us as PCB had always tried to use this forum whenever we have cited genuine impediments on having an Indo-Pak bilateral series,” the source conceded.