Pakistan cricket board seek to censure Anurag Thakur
The war of words between India and Pakistan have been immense in the last few weeks. Parties from both the sides have come out with pretty strong words in defending their respective nations.
ICC's Executive Board meeting in Cape Town this week is set to grab some attention as the Pakistan Cricket Board has made it clear about what they expect from the meeting. PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan won't be attending the meeting as he is recovering from a heart surgery in London. In his absence, former chairman of PCB, Najam Sethi will be attending the meeting along with the chief operating officer Subhan Ahmed.
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Before leaving for Cape Town, Sethi said that he would give a stern reply to the officials of the Indian cricket board but will ensure that politics and cricket are kept apart.
An official source from the PCB board said that Sethi was unhappy with the strong comments made by the BCCI president Anurag Thakur, who said that India would not play cricket against Pakistan because of their support to terrorist activities.
"Pakistan’s stance is simple…first Anurag Thakur must clarify at the ICC meeting whether he gives statements as a politician of the ruling party in India or as president of the BCCI since the ICC constitution discourages politics in cricket,” as quoted by The Indian Express.
The Sethi-led team will also be taking up the statement of Thakur’s, in which he had said that BCCI will request ICC to not keep the two countries in the same group in ICC events including in next year’s Champions Trophy. The source also added that the board will question BCCI's refusal to play with them in a bilateral series, but will take home a large sum of profit made from the Indo-Pak matches in ICC events.
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"Pakistan will be pushing for a review of the Big Three governance formula under which the head of corporate costs India take home nearly 32 percent of the earnings followed by England and Australia with 18 and 12 percent, which leaves nothing for other boards," the source said.
He said Pakistan will present a paper at the ICC meeting, which will be discussing the "Big Three" issue, which also reveals that while Pakistan only gets to make around USD 100 million, India will make around USD 350 million despite not playing Pakistan in bilateral series.
With the meeting scheduled to take place later this week, the ICC will be aware of the uphill task that awaits them in the India-Pakistan issue.