Pak-England series in doubt as ICC seeks answers

LONDON: Pakistan’s home series against England in United Arab Emirates next winter remains in the balance as the International Cricket Council (ICC) awaits a satisfactory explanation from the host broadcaster, Ten Sports, over its involvement in cricket’s so-called rebel movement.
Talk of a split in world cricket gathered pace since it was revealed on April 24 that the ICC had begun an investigation into the registration of companies and website domains by Indian conglomerate Essel, of which the said broadcaster — which owns the rights to show home international cricket in five Test-playing nations — is a subsidiary.
While companies such as Australian Cricket Control Pvt Ltd and New Zealand Cricket Limited are known to have been set up by Essel, which is owned by the billionaire Indian media mogul Subhash Chandra, website addresses that include worldcricketcouncil.in and cricketassociationofengland.co.in were established by an employee of its Sports channel.
Essel has since admitted its interest in a return to cricket — its rebel Indian Cricket League collapsed in 2009 after two seasons — but went on record this week to deny the involvement of the broadcaster, despite the name and email address of Deepak Srivastava, an IT manager at the television company, being listed on the documentation for website domains that include “associations” for all 10 full member nations of the ICC.
The news comes at a time when England are yet to announce the dates for the trip to the UAE, where they are due to play three Tests, five one-day internationals and one Twenty20 against Pakistan in October and November. While a fixture schedule has been agreed between the England and Wales Cricket Board and their counterparts at the Pakistan Cricket Board, public confirmation of the tour will not be forthcoming unless the television company explains its actions to the ICC investigation led by outgoing ECB chairman, Giles Clarke.
While the issue is not directly between the ECB and the PCB, the situation demonstrates the fragile nature of international cricket at present.
A full withdrawal from the series would be an extreme response for England, especially given that their tour to South Africa in December, the fixtures of which were announced late last year, is another production of that television channel.
The exact plan for the breakaway remains shrouded in mystery, although Lalit Modi, the architect of the lucrative and successful IPL, was involved in early stages of the project before walking away.
Modi claims Chandra is looking to create a new global governing body for the sport.
“They are not concerned (about recent events being noticed by the ICC),” Modi told the Observer.
“It is not putting a tournament together, it is building it from the grass roots up. A company of their size could execute this, without doubt.”