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ICC rejects: Pakistan compensation claim over India

By Our Correspondent
November 21, 2018

KARACHI: The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Tuesday dismissed a compensation claim by Pakistan over India’s refusal to honour an agreement to play bilateral series.

“Following a three-day hearing and having considered detailed oral and written submissions, the Dispute Panel has dismissed the PCB’s claim against the BCCI,” the ICC said in a statement.

The decision cannot be appealed. The dispute centred on a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) according to which India and Pakistan agreed to play six bilateral series from 2015 to 2023, four of which were to be hosted by Pakistan.

The PCB had filed a claim of $70 million. India refused to play against Pakistan, citing the government’s objections because of political tensions between the two countries.According to the agreement, the six tours would include up to 14 Tests, 30 ODIs and 12 T20Is.

The MoU was a reward to Pakistan for backing the “Big Three” plan according to which India, Australia and England had the major share of power and revenues of world cricket. That arrangement fell apart and the BCCI refused to accept the MoU as a legal document, dismissing it as a “piece of paper”.

India cut off cricket ties with Pakistan after the 2008 attacks in Mumbai which left more than 160 people killed. The two sides have not played a full series since Pakistan’s tour of India in 2007.

Pakistan toured India for a limited-overs series with two T20Is and three ODIs in December 2012 and January 2013 but full ties were not restored. After negotiations about the proposed tours failed, the PCB filed a notice of dispute with the ICC resolution committee in November last year.

PCB, which reportedly spent one million dollars fighting the case, described the decision as “disappointing”.“Following a lengthy dispute resolution process, the announcement of the decision has come as a disappointment,” it said.

“PCB will determine its future course of action in this regard after detailed deliberations and consultations with its stakeholders,” it added. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) welcomed the decision, saying it had always maintained that the MoU was non-binding and that it “merely expressed an intention to play.

“The BCCI wholeheartedly welcomes the decision of the Dispute Panel. The BCCI will now move the Dispute Panel to recover its legal cost from the PCB,” it said in a press release.The ICC’s three-member dispute resolution committee was formed last year to look into the PCB’s compensation claim. The hearing took place at the world body’s headquarters in the UAE from October 1-3.

The ICC dispute panel ruled that the document signed between the two Boards did not seem binding. “It follows inexorably that the PCB’s claim must fail. If there was no obligation on the BCCI to engage in the tours in either 2014 or 2015, its omission to do so was no breach and gave rise to no damages claim,” it said.

The first of the proposed series was planned in November 2015 in the UAE but BCCI didn’t get permission from the government which is mandatory for any bilateral cricketing engagement with Pakistan. The PCB’s compensation claim was triggered by a loss of TV revenue for that particular series.

The ICC panel did urge the two countries to consider reviving bilateral cricket.“The Panel expresses the hope that political considerations will not long prevent that desire from being fulfilled,” it said. —with input from agencies