Will Zaheer succeed where PCB failed?

KARACHI: Zaheer Abbas, the International Cricket Council (ICC) President, will throw his weight behind Pakistan’s efforts to save their all-important home series against India.
Well-placed sources told ‘The News’ on Friday that Zaheer is likely to make last-ditch efforts to help materialise the Indo-Pak series on the sidelines of an ICC moot in Dubai next week.
“Even though he is ICC’s President Zaheer Abbas doesn’t hold any powers that can influence the Indians to play the series,” a source said. “But he yields substantial goodwill in India as well as the rest of the cricket world and he is likely to use that in his bid to help save the bilateral series between Pakistan and India,” he added.
A former Pakistan Test captain, Zaheer Abbas commands respect and a large fan following in India.
Pakistan have been hoping to host India in a home series featuring two Tests, five One-day Internationals and two Twenty20 Internationals. The country’s cash-strapped cricket board is desperate for the money-spinning series which if held will help it raise millions of dollars.
But the Indians, who did sign an MoU with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to play the bilateral series in the UAE, have deviated from their commitment on the pretext that they don’t have their government clearance to play the series.
PCB officials have been hoping against hope that the series will be held but recent developments suggest that the chances of any matches against India taking place in December are less than slim.
Sartaj Aziz, the National Security Adviser, has recently remarked that he saw no chance of a revival of ties between Pakistan and India under “the current situation.”
However, PCB officials will be meeting their BCCI (Indian cricket board) counterparts on the sidelines of the ICC moot in Dubai to discuss the series.
Next week, Shaharyar Khan, the PCB chairman, will be meeting BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur in Dubai where the ICC Board will gather at the global body’s headquarters on 12 and 13 October for the final round of meetings of 2015.
India had agreed to play six Test series with Pakistan between 2015-2023 after the PCB bowed to the ICC reforms last year which handed hefty powers, and revenues, to the so-called big three — India, Australia and England. But all the series were subject to clearance from the respective governments.
While the PCB-BCCI interaction in Dubai is unlikely to achieve much, sources said that there is an outside chance that Zaheer might achieve some kind of breakthrough.
“In his capacity as ICC president, Zaheer Abbas will be entertaining the top bosses of world cricket in Dubai next week,” a source said. “He would also be entertaining top Indian cricket officials. His primary objective will be to garner strong support for the revival of bilateral cricketing ties between Pakistan and India,” he added.
According to another source, Zaheer will even ask the BCCI officials to help him line up a meeting with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the near future.
“Zaheer is of the view that if need be he can go and meet the Indian prime minister and request him to play his role in the revival of Indo-Pak cricket,” the source said.