Mani versus Sethi

Ehsan Mani says he would have encouraged ‘board-to-board’ and ‘board-to-government’ talks

A new Pakistan came with a new PCB chairman and like the promise of positive changes in the government, assurances galore were given regarding the state of cricket.

Case in point at the moment is bilateral cricket with neighbours and arch-rivals India, who do not want resumption of cricketing ties with Pakistan — sometimes their board says the government doesn’t allow them, sometimes BCCI officials themselves come out and negate the possibility.

While former chairman Najam Sethi was earlier adamant that India comes to the table and listens to them, he was eventually forced to take the BCCI to court (not in the literal terms) as he filed a case with the ICC Dispute Resolution Committee, asking the Indian board to pay them $70 million in compensation for walking out of the MoU, which pitted Asian giants against each other in eight series over a period of six years.

However, Ehsan Mani, in a recent interview opposed Sethi’s final stance, saying he would have encouraged ‘board-to-board’ and ‘board-to-government’ talks.

While Mani must have forgotten how Sethi’s predecessor, Shaharyar Khan, was welcomed when he went to India to discuss bilateral ties, not with garlands and dinner but stones pelted on the BCCI office, he should remember and acknowledge that Sethi too tried talking to the BCCI. Mani also called the BCCI’s policy of allowing team India to play against Pakistan in ICC events but not pushing the idea of a bilateral series with their government ‘hypocrisy’, then the question arises that what does he expect from such ‘hypocrites’ when on the table?

The ICC has heard the PCB’s and the BCCI’s pleas this month and reserved a decision for a later date. But one can’t rule out the possibility that Mani’s current diplomatic gesture of table-talk is a sign that Pakistan will be standing on the wrong side of the decision in the compensation case.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 18^th, 2018.

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