Daily Times

LAHORE: Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) legal battle against its Indian counterpart over the resumption of bilateral series between the neighbouring countries is a ‘waste of time’, according to former PCB chairman Zaka Ashraf. Zaka, while talking to reporters here Wednesday, said the PCB would not get any success as its Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) signed in 2014 to assure both sides will play bilateral series from six bilateral series from 2015-2023 had no strong legal biding to force India against its stance.

Zaka said as PCB chairman he stood alone against the ‘Big Three’ formula of the International Cricket Council (ICC) under which India, England and Australia had to get a lion’s share of the global body’s income while rest of the member countries had to get nominal share from the profit.

The ICC, however, abolished the Big Three Formula last year. It may be mentioned here that after Zaka’s removal from the PCB as chairman, incumbent chairman Najam Sethi voted in favour of the Big Three and in return he signed an agreement with the BCCI that both the countries would resume bilateral cricket, which has been suspended since the last decade due to political issues between the two governments. Zaka said in the first attempt the PCB had the support of three countries to go against the ‘Big Three Formula’, but later, when the board was left alone, he stood firm against the new ruling.

Published in Daily Times, February 1^st 2018.