Former Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Najam Sethi has lashed out at the International Cricket Council (ICC) for giving a ‘politically motivated decision’ in the compensation case against the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

The PCB lost its legal battle against the BCCI in front of the Dispute Resolution Committee (DRC) formed by the ICC for the compensation case worth of $70 million USD for not honouring the alleged Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

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.

Sethi, who was the PCB chairman when the case was filed, termed the decision as ‘vague’, and also believes that the Pakistani side had a stronger case compared to their Indian couterparts.

“We’ve pursued the case in the best possible manner,” said Sethi while talking to a local news channel on Tuesday. “But we also must not forget that India have an extremely strong lobby in the board. But even then, this judgment is extremely absurd.”

He added: “There were 9,000 documents presented but the judgment was concluded in just two paragraphs. Even in that judgment, there are so many contradictions. First they claimed that PCB’s version was right and if the signed document is viewed with the microscope, then there was a legal binding on the BCCI to fulfill. But on the other hand they said that if the document is viewed with the telescope, there are many other things involved which needs to be considered and hence the decision should go in the favour of BCCI. They even considered oral orders of the Indian government as solid or concrete evidence. This kind of judgment is shocking to say the least.”

Sethi further went on to claim that the judgment was politically influenced as the ICC or any other member cannot take stand against BCCI.

“I seriously believe that this judgment is politically influenced,” said Sethi. “India’s strength in ICC is unquestionable at times. They [BCCI] have threatened other members and ICC that if their terms are not agreed, they will establish their own ICC. Therefore, I believe that this panel, which we first believed will be an independent one, had pressures to deal with which is why the verdict came against us.”

The 70-year-old also defended PCB’s decision of taking the BCCI to the court and revealed that the board worked on the advice of top lawyers in the UK and Pakistan.

“We must not forget that the decision to take BCCI to the court over this matter was based on professional advice,” Sethi added. “We consulted top lawyers in the UK who gave us their professional opinion that we have a really strong case and that legally it is a binding contract. Then to confirm it, we consulted top lawyers in Pakistan and even they gave us the same advice. Therefore, we decided to pursue the case as people would’ve criticised us for not taking the BCCI to the court even after such advices of top-notch lawyers.”

Sethi also revealed the feeling inside the PCB’s camp during the case by saying: “At no stage did we feel that our case is not strong. We knew that India will put pressure on the ICC to give the verdict in their favour, but we were expecting a decision from where things can move forward. However, this judgment leaves a bad taste and unfortunately it seems that cricket between arch-rivals is only expected to resume when India will want to play Pakistan.”