Karachi: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Shaharyar Khan on Friday threatened to take legal action against the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for repeatedly refusing to play against the national team.
Khan further said that the PCB is thinking about seeking compensation from the BCCI after the International Cricket Council (ICC) ruled in favour of Pakistan in a dispute over the women’s series which was not held in September-October in Dubai.
“The ICC had asked the BCCI to show the letters or any other documents with their external ministry to confirm it didn’t send its team to play Pakistan in the ICC women’s champions league in UAE on advice of its government,” Khan was quoted as saying by the Jang newspaper.
“The ICC technical committee awarded points to our women’s team declaring the series as forfeited by India because the BCCI couldn’t show any document which confirmed they were stopped by their government from playing the series”.
Khan further demanded evidence from the BCCI to prove that the Indian government had barred its national team from playing against Pakistan.
“We now want the Indian board to provide the ICC with evidence that they have been told by their government to not play us in bilateral series despite a written MoU signed between the two boards in 2014 to play six such series between 2015 and 2022,” he said.
“We were even ready to host our home series in Sri Lanka last January under the MoU but India said it didn’t get clearance from its external ministry.”
Reiterating that the PCB had to suffer huge financial loses after the BCCI refused to play against Pakistan, Khan said his board’s legal team will seek the ICC’s intervention at its next meeting in Dubai in January.
“We will seek legal recourse against the BCCI via the ICC platform and also proper compensation for the many series they have refused to play against us and caused us heavy losses,” he said.
“We have lost revenue and don’t have the funds to invest in our club or domestic cricket”.
“We are already facing hardships due to other teams not touring Pakistan due to security concerns since 2009,” he added.
India has not played Pakistan in a full bilateral series since 2007 when Pakistan went to India.
Recently, the BCCI had also urged the ICC not to put the arch-rivals in the same group in global tournaments.
–IANS