Fallout: Pakistan ‘timed out’

Zaka Ashraf thinks South Africa ‘cheated’ at the last minute.

KARACHI:

As the International Cricket Council (ICC) approves a new resolution on governance, competition and financial models of the game, current and former officials of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) weigh in on the possible fallout for the game in the country.

A disappointed Zaka Ashraf, the incumbent PCB chairman, expressed his displeasure at Cricket South Africa (CSA)’s surprising change of heart a day before the Singapore meeting.

“I think South Africa cheated us,” Ashraf told media after the meeting. “Just last night [Friday night] they told us that they have changed their stance and told us that it was the decision of their board (CSA). It disappointed us.”

However, he added that despite the reforms, Pakistan has not been isolated. “The notion that our cricket is now isolated is wrong yet at the same time experts who were telling us to join the ‘Big Three’ don’t realise that we were not given any solid assurance from India on playing us.”



Officials believe Ashraf’s supposed failure to salvage the situation for Pakistan is likely to send him packing in the coming week. It wouldn’t be surprising given the persistent reluctance of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who is also the patron-in-chief of PCB, to meet Ashraf.

Abbasi disappointed with new ICC resolution

Arif Abbasi, a former PCB chief, termed the implementation of the new ICC resolution ‘disappointing’. In a candid assessment of the takeover of the sport by the three affluent cricket bodies, Abbasi called the Indian Cricket Board (BCCI) the most scandalous board in international cricket.

“It’s really disappointing that cricket boards are running after money. The ‘Big Three’ has been led by India which is itself the most scandalous country in international cricket when it comes to financial side of the game,” Abbasi said.

Abbasi, who is credited with bringing the World Cup to the subcontinent for the first time in 1987, added that even independent and Indian experts were against the takeover by BCCI.

“Lalit Modi and Lord Woolf have been beating the drum of corruption in Indian cricket, how can the world trust India or BCCI?” Abbasi questioned.

“This will result in death of cricket because it will not grow and evolve in smaller countries. If three countries are there to decide the fate of international cricket alone the ICC should be closed down and allow them a freehand.”

Abbasi also feels that cricket will tend towards polarisation in the future if financial strength remains the lone yardstick. A country like Pakistan with a rich history of the sport does not deserve such shabby treatment.

Reacting to Pakistan’s strategy to abstain from voting in ICC’s decisive meeting in Singapore, Ashraf’s predecessor, former chairman of the Interim Management Committee (IMC), Najam Sethi tweeted: “Shockingly bad tactics by PCB leading to passing of pro-Big Three resolutions in the ICC meeting today and isolation of Pakistan in minority of two.”

Published in The Express Tribune, February 9^th, 2014.