The new Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ehsan Mani is ready to talk with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to improve the cricket relationship between the two neighbour countries even they are going to face off soon in an ICC hearing in Dubai.
Due to cancelling back-to-back two bilateral series that have led massive losses for PCB, they took the legal action against BCCI where they have claimed around $70 million in compensation. According to the ICC’s Future Tours Programme (FTP) that had been agreed by both the boards in 2014, India and Pakistan had to play two bilateral series in November 2014 and December 2015.
According to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that had been signed in 2014, both boards had agreed to play six bilateral series between 2015 and 2023. But due to the political tensions arising between the two countries, India and Pakistan haven’t played bilateral series since 2012/13.
While the Asia Cup 2018 is running on in United Arab Emirates (UAE) where India and Pakistan have already faced twice, Mani has opened up his doors to talk with BCCI to improve the cricketing relations.
Mani said, “This process has already gone beyond resolving it amicably. It’s in the final stages of reaching a conclusion. Both sides have to find a common solution for the future and I’ll explore every possibility for the sake of the game. Had I been involved when the dispute happened, every effort would have been made to sort it bilaterally. Unfortunately, we are where we are. We have to still progress, but my doors are always open.”
Mani believes cricket boards shouldn’t get into politics. In the last week’s Asian Cricket Council (ACC) meeting, Mani met with the BCCI chief executive Rahul Johri and the interim secretary Amitabh Chaudhary.
Mani said, “Cricket boards have to work towards playing cricket, they shouldn’t get into politics, that’s what we’re talking with our Indian counterparts. There’s some bridge-building to do, hopefully we will be able to make some ground because the relations haven’t been great.
“I have already had a very constructive discussion with my colleagues from India who are here. We’ll have a lot of common ground going forward. We all understand whatever has happened in the past has happened; we have to move forward. At the end of the day, the game is bigger than any one person; it’s bigger than the politicians. It reaches out across global spectrum.”
Mani also added that the cricket fans don’t care about the politics when India-Pakistan match is played. He believes the cricketing situation can be sorted gradually if they regularly play the game.
Mani said, “When an India-Pakistan match is played, over a 100 billion people watch the game from all over the world. No one cares about the politics. The main thing is to get the cricket going and this is a main thing in that direction. I am very hopeful the board will work towards it. Am not saying we will get results on day one but we will work towards the common goal. The boards’ endeavour should be for cricket, not anything else.
“When politicians talk, we shouldn’t get it into it. We should focus on matters concerning the cricket boards. When the Kargil incident happened [in 1999], even then we didn’t stop dialogues. We knew cricket was tough, but every effort was made to renew bilateral ties. I strongly believe politics and politicians shouldn’t influence cricket.”
