Daily Times

KARACHI: Former Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Zaka Ashraf has said that the board’s legal battle against, India for not honouring MoU of playing a bilateral series, is good for nothing and it will not bring anything for Pakistan. Speaking to journalists in Karachi, Zaka said the PCB’s MoU with India wasn’t a properly drafted agreement and it didn’t have clause to ensure compensation. “This battle will only cause embarrassment to the PCB as it will not get anything. Furthermore, I believe that following this tussle, the BCCI will do efforts to isolate Pakistan in international cricket by blocking cricket series for us,” Zaka said. The PCB had on Thursday sent an official notice to the International Cricket Council (ICC) seeking formation of dispute panel to adjudicate the matter of Pakistan-India bilateral cricketing ties.

“The MoU was not legally protected as I don’t see any clause, which may allow Pakistan to claim compensation or to go to any court of arbitration against the BCCI for not honouring the commitment,” he said while suggesting that the matter should have been handled diplomatically. The former chairman said that India offered him the same when he was heading the PCB, but he took a principled stand in the interest of Pakistan. “First, I told them that we are against shifting all powers to three nations, second I asked them even if we supported, what would we get out of it,” Zaka explained. “I was insisting that there should be a clause to give us legal protection against the BCCI if they refused to play series with us making any excuse,” he said.

The former PCB chief said that he demanded a clause for taking BCCI to Court of Arbitration for Sports in case of dishonouring the commitment, but India didn’t agree to it. “Even Giles Clarke came to me and I made him clear on my stance; upon listening to my position the ECB chief also agreed that it was legally good for us to demand such clause while signing any agreement with India,” Zaka said.

He confirmed that Pakistan’s tour to India in late 2012 was just a goodwill tour and PCB didn’t get any monetary benefit out of it, but added that it is incorrect to say that PCB was at the losing end on that tour. “BCCI took care of all the expenses, so how could we suffer any losses,” he said. “In fact, on the sidelines of that series, I had fruitful discussions with my then Indian counterpart Srinivasan, who had agreed on resumption of bilateral ties and promised that he would convince the government, but that couldn’t happen,” Zaka concluded.

Published in Daily Times, December 3^rd 2017.