Pakistan will ‘push’ for cricket series against India, not ‘beg’ for it

cricket

Updated: Dec 01, 2016 16:15 IST

They aren’t exactly “begging” India to play against them, but Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Shaharyar Khan says the board is well within its rights to “push” the BCCI into honouring the Memorandum of Understanding for six bilateral series between the two countries.

“We are not begging them to play us. Please don’t get that impression. But they (BCCI)signed a proper Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with us to play six bilateral series between 2015 and 2023 and they haven’t met their commitment,” Shaharyar told reporters in Islamabad after attending a meeting of the national standing committee on sports.

“It is our right as a cricket nation to push them to honour the MoU. They immediately owe us at least two home series as the last full bilateral series was played in India, in 2007. In the MoU, Pakistan were to host four series between 2015 and 2023,” he said.

Shaharyar, a former career diplomat, said that both countries have to play bilateral series according to the MoU signed in 2014, during the ICC meeting, and that the PCB were hoping these series would help bolster its finances.

He said Pakistan lost huge revenue due to India’s refusal to play them and that was the reason the PCB had brought up the matter in the ICC executive board in Cape Town.

“We have been consulting our lawyers on this issue of the MoU and we will be taking up this case of bilateral series at the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) meeting this month,” he added.

Shaharyar was recently elected chairman of the ACC and will chair the next meeting in Colombo on December 17.