PCB to take legal action against BCCI if three meetings go unfulfilled
Najam Sethi, who is set to replace Shaharyar Khan as PCB chief, said that India will have to play $70 million for not honouring the MOU signed by them.
India and Pakistan might be facing each other on June 4 in the ICC Champions Trophy; there is palpable tension between both boards. Both countries had signed a MoU in which India and Pakistan would play six bilateral series between 2015 and 2023. Four of these series were to be hosted by Pakistan.
With no progress on the matter yet, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is incurring huge losses. Though BCCI has always shown their keenness of playing a series against their arch-rivals, they keep insisting that they need clearance from their government, who does not want the series to go ahead due to the political turmoil between the two neighbours.
PCB can take action
The PCB is now running out of patience and is set to take legal action against BCCI because the latter is going back on the MoU signed between both countries. PCB Executive Committee head Najam Sethi is of the opinion that they are well within their right of taking action against the richest cricket Board in the world.
“We have discussed this with some of the leading legal minds around, both in Pakistan and abroad, and all of them agree we are in a position to take legal action against the BCCI if they do not play us in a series hosted by us,” said Sethi.
PCB will wait to meet BCCI twice before the two boards meet again with ICC being the third party to it. Only post these meetings, PCB will push for a legal option.
“We have had two meetings with the BCCI. We will have a third meeting in which the International Cricket Council (ICC) will be involved,” he said. “If they agree to play us then that is great, otherwise we will be taking action against them.”
Sethi further stated that PCB will look for a heavy compensation somewhere in the bracket of $70 million. “They will have to pay us to the tune of $70 million for the first home and away series.”
Stance clear on big three
With Sethi set to take over as PCB chief whenever Shaharyar Khan steps down, Sethi made it clear that PCB’s stance of opposing the big three will remain unchanged.
“This is the stance of not only the chairman but of all of the PCB,” he said. “And this will not change once the current PCB chairman’s tenure ends.”
BCCI has been at the loggerheads with ICC ever since the big three revenue model was scrapped which will lead to huge losses to the Indian Board. BCCI threatened to pull out of the ICC Champions Trophy but later took a U-turn and selected a squad to go to England for their title defence.
India and Pakistan are set to take each other on in a widely anticipated clash on Sunday at Edgbaston in Birmingham.
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