According to a source on Tuesday, the ICC has promised the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) a few concessions in exchange for the PCB ceasing its boycott of the India match, but those would not be made public until the T20 World Cup is over.
“Whatever concessions the PCB has got from the ICC on ending their boycott will only be made public after the end of T20 World Cup,” PTI quoted a PCB source as saying.
In addition to being granted an ICC event in the 2028–2031 cycle (ideally the U19 men’s World Cup), the ICC has already declared that the Bangladesh Cricket Board will not be subject to any sanctions from the international organization.
In support of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), which was sacked after refusing to play their matches in India for security reasons, Pakistan would boycott the T20 World Cup group stage match against India in Colombo on February 15, according to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
The boycott did come to an end on Monday night following tense negotiations and backchannel discussions, which also involved intervention from Anura Kumara Dissinayake, the president of Sri Lanka, and the Bangladesh Cricket Board, which asked Shahbaz Sharif to modify their position while taking wider interests into consideration.
“The call from Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissinayake played a big part in ending the boycott as did a briefing from some top people in the government/establishment who have been closely following the developments,” PTI quoted another source as saying.
In the event that the two nations must play each other again in the latter stages of the World Cup, the PCB has now also been cleared to play India.
According to a different source, the Prime Minister, who also serves as the PCB’s patron in chief, was actually informed on what Pakistan could accomplish if the government sent out a notice to refrain from playing against India.
“The ICC now has a clear understanding with Naqvi that no further details of the discussions that took place with PCB, Bangladesh Cricket Board and some other boards would be made public,” the source said.
In its Monday statement, the ICC affirmed that Bangladesh would not face sanctions for their position, but it made no mention of the benefits that PCB would receive from breaking the deadlock.
Although there have been rumors that Naqvi is trying to boost the PCB’s revenue share from the ICC, another insider has clarified that this will only happen with the ICC board’s consent for the upcoming fiscal cycle.
He claimed that during talks, Naqvi had emphasized that since Pakistan and India were already participating in previous ICC white ball competitions, there was no reason why they couldn’t play both home and away games in the ICC World Test Championship at neutral venues.
But there’s still a catch. All other series are bilaterals for which points are given, with the exception of the WTC final, which is a direct ICC event.
