The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) may have benefited from the new structural changes in the International Cricket Council (ICC), but its real challenge starts now as it needs to make sure that all those promises are fulfilled.
In the recently concluded meetings of the ICC in Melbourne, Pakistan became the fourth country after the ‘Big Three’ – Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Cricket Australia (CA) and England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) – to be allotted funds by the ICC, while it also gained a position in the all-powerful executive committee.
Additionally, the PCB has agreed on Pakistan playing six series against their archrivals India in the next eight years – which will earn the board Rs40 billion – while the national cricket governing body was also granted the right to nominate the ICC president in 2015.
Considering the hapless situation that the PCB faced a couple of months back when Zaka Ashraf decided to oppose the ‘Big Three’, these achievements seem mammoth, but it would be well for chairman Najam Sethi not to get carried away, as his real task starts now.
Whatever has been achieved in the new structural changes and the Future Tours Programme after facing a threat of isolation is laudable, but now it’s high time to make sure that the relevant triumph goes on to benefit Pakistan cricket tangibly.
Rather than ending up as a showpiece on the executive committee that would sign on whatever the BCCI, ECB and CA decide, Sethi would be required to shift to a higher gear so that he makes his presence felt.
In order to contribute to the betterment of international cricket in general and Pakistan specifically, the chairman must work independently. Getting a prominent role in a powerful committee of the ICC is easy, but fulfilling its demands will be the litmus test.
Another major challenge would be to make sure that the BCCI fulfils its promise of playing the pledged six series, as the past has proved time and again that India could be fickle at the last moment.
All credit goes to the PCB for roping the series with India, but it also needs to come up with a contingency plan in the event that the BCCI backs out from its promise; the board should draw up conditions that can be used to seek damage claims.
Similarly, the PCB must ensure that they get the actual fourth-highest share in the ICC funds whenever they are distributed, and that its ICC president does not end up performing only a ceremonial role when he assumes power in 2015.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 3rd, 2014.
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What about ppl ? LOL
it doesn't matter because we have same players who are not loyal to the nation. Whatever!
So... essentially, we have gone from the "Promise of Plebiscite" (erstwhile J&K) to the "Promise of Cricket Series" (vs India) ... quite a voyage it seems for Pakistan over the past sixty-odd years! So it follows then that should there be a "backing out" by BCCI, N.Srinivasan has the opportunity to join the exhalted ranks of Jawaharlal Nehru in the estimation of most Pakistanis... no less!!
In typical Pakistani fashion, we are happy with crumbs not the actual product. India can cancel series with us anytime and they can make up the loss, because they play Australia, South Africa, England more than any other team. Pakistan, on the other hand, rarely gets a full series against these teams and most of our series are against Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, and West Indies. If PCB had any brains, they would sigh multiple full series agreements against England, South Africa, and Australia in order to ensure they get good revenue, and at the same time have their team get better by playing top teams instead of weak sides.
What a bunch of wannabes!