The Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) proposal to have an annual four-nationtournament which features Pakistan, India, Australia and Englandlinkdidnot find favour with a majority of the International Cricket Council (ICC)members, it is learnt.
PCB’s chief Ramiz Raja had proposed the idea during the ICC board meetingin Dubai on Sunday and gave a detailed plan.
The Indian Express link understands that a fewboards did support the idea but majority were not in favour of it. “He(Raja) spoke about at length but the majority felt it is important forboards to focus more on bilateral commitment. The Asian Cricket Council(ACC) members felt that going ahead they will only have the Asia Cup as amulti-team event in Asia and did not back the four-nation tournament,” amember, who attended the ICC meet said.
At the same time, other boards who didn’t feature in the proposal didn’tlike PCB’s idea of going ahead with the tournament without them. Also, itwas difficult to find space in the packed calendar.
“At the same time the FTP is too tight, it’s hard to get in a newtournament at this stage for sure,” the member added. In an interactionwith this paper before the ICC tournament, Raja had stated that he wastaking this proposal forward as an ICC Board member and not as a PCB chief.
“It’s not Us versus Them, it’s Us versus Us. The last great concept was theT20 World Cup, which was held in 2007. So nothing new has come since that2007 event, and here’s an opportunity. This thing happens in rugby, so wehave a precedent. I’m just hoping that we look at this concept as acricketing concept and not as a political concept,” Raja had said. Indiaversus Pakistan bilateral cricket has been come to a stop after India’sstand to not play until terror attacks are stopped. However, India doesplay Pakistan in ICC events.
PCB chairman, Raja later in the day tweeted, “Great discussion regarding 4Nations series today at the ICC meet. As a concept it was welcomed anddebated upon and seen as promoting the interest of the game. Fingerscrossed. More when I am back at the office tomorrow.”
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