Former chairman of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Najam Sethi has clarified his position, after PCB lost its legal battle against the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) regarding Indo-Pak series compensation case.
Sethi has said that the decision to go to International Cricket Council (ICC) Dispute Resolution Committee (DRC) against BCCI was not taken by him.
“The decision to go to the ICC Dispute Resolution Committee against the BCCI was taken by the PCB BoG unanimously under Chairman Sheharyar Khan,” said Sethi in a tweet on his official Twitter account.
The compensation case was worth $70 million USD for not honouring the alleged Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two boards.
According to the MoU, which was signed at the time of the formation of ‘Big Three’ in 2014, both arch-rivals were due to play six bilateral series between 2015-2023, four of which were supposed to be hosted by Pakistan.
But not a single series was materialised as the BCCI claimed that they’ve not received clearance from the federal government, due to which PCB filed the compensation case in front of the ICC.
“PCB’s decision was based on two strong legal opinions,” he said. “One Pakistan and one UK QC, that PCB had a good case. ICC held that there was indeed a contract between BCCI and PCB but BCCI didn’t get government permission which rendered contract void.”
The panel later determined the cost award related to the case which stated that the PCB should pay 60 per cent of: “(a) the [BCCI’s] Claimed Costs; and (b) the administrative costs and expenses of the Panel which fall within the scope of paragraph 11.4 of the T/R (including, without limitation, the fees of the Tribunal members, and the costs and expenses they incurred in relation to this matter), the figure whereof is to be supplied to the PCB by the ICC.”
Speaking on the cost award, Sethi said: It is routine for losing party to pay full costs of winning party. But ICC has ordered PCB to pay only 60 percent of BCCI costs because it believes PCB had legitimate issues."