NEW DELHI – BCCI acting Chief Amitab Choudhary has taken a big u turnstating BCCI “never signed any contract” with PCB with regards to bilateralseries.
Pakistani cricket authorities claim that their Indian counterparts haveviolated a 2014 memorandum of understanding under which the two were toplay six bilateral series between 2015 and 2023.
The PCB is seeking $70 million in compensation as a dispute resolutionpanel of the ICC will hear the claim in October.
“It’s a statement of intent and not a contract. I don’t blame them forsticking to the letter. But it is not a contract,” Choudhary told reporterson the sidelines of the ICC quarterly meeting on Monday.
“They have their own pressure at home which I understand,” he saidindicating to a letter dated April 9, 2014 written by the erstwhilesecretary Sanjay Patel to PCB chairman Najam Sethi.
According to the letter, BCCI and PCB agree that the senior men’s cricketteams of India and Pakistan will play each other but the letter will have”no effect” if the resolutions are not passed at the ICC Annual Conferencein June 2014.
“The BCCI and PCB acknowledge that the is letter has arisen in the contextof the resolutions which have been tabled at the ICC Executive Boardmeeting on February 8 2014 relating to a new financial model and governancestructure for the ICC including the third in a series of six resolutionsrelating to all Full members entering into a series of agreements with oneanother providing for agreed FTP content between 2015-2023…
“And as such if those resolutions are not passed at the ICC AnnualConference in June, 2014 by directors nominated by Full Members of the ICCat that meeting and the representatives of Associate Members and the 4 ICCZonal representatives, then this letter shall be of no effect,” the letter,which has a countersign of the PCB, said.
Chaudhary further said BCCI was lagging behind in hosting day-night Testsas Hyderabad or Rajkot in the series against West Indies in October is setto host a Pink ball Test.
“Only India and Bangladesh have not played a day-night Test. Every othercountry has played a day/night Test. That means we are lagging behind.”
“I had consulted the team management, the selectors, the office-bearers ofthe BCCI and all were in agreement that one of the two Tests this seasonagainst the West Indies should be a Day-Night match,” he said.