Battle lines drawn! New PCB boss Ehsan Mani wants to fight India in legal case
Islamabad: Pakistan's new cricket chairman says he will continue to push his country's case at the ICC dispute committee over archrival India pulling out of two bilateral series.
"Their (Indian) policy has been overall contradicting, because they are always ready to play in multinational tournaments like Asia Cup and World Cup but pulls out on bilateral arrangements," Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ehsan Mani said on Tuesday.
India cancelled series with Pakistan in 2014 and 2015, claiming political tensions. Pakistan was scheduled to stage both series, and claimed losses of nearly $70 million.
Since then, they have met in the 2015 Cricket World Cup and 2017 Champions Trophy. They are scheduled to meet this month in the Asia Cup in the United Arab Emirates.
Their legal case before the ICC dispute panel begins on October 1.
"If it was at an earlier stage, I could have sat with the BCCI at the table to sort this out, but the process has started and gone too far to be pulled back," Mani said.
Mani was elected unopposed as chairman for a three-year term on Tuesday in Lahore.
Prime Minister Imran Khan, the patron of the PCB, nominated Mani as a member of the board of governors last month when Najam Sethi resigned as board chairman. Sethi's resignation was expected as he had a poor relationship with Khan, who was elected prime minister in July general elections.
According to the PCB constitution, the patron can nominate two members on the board.
Mani has considerable cricket administration experience. He previously represented Pakistan on the International Cricket Council from 1996-2002, and served as ICC president from 2003-06.
Mani said he would like to tweak the PCB constitution to diminish the power of the chairman.
"Everywhere in the world it doesn't happen like this, so we have to tweak the constitution," he said. "The whole system should run only for cricketers, and the importance of the chairman and board members will be toned down."
