Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief Mohsin Naqvi said his board and the government’s ‘only purpose’ was to get ‘respect’ for Bangladesh. He claimed that his side had no ‘personal interest’ in the tripartite meeting between the PCB, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and the International Cricket Council (ICC) and only the Bangladeshi contingent made ‘demands’, which were accepted by the world body.
Naqvi’s comments came after PTI reported that the ICC did make ‘concessions’ towards Pakistan’s side, which would be revealed only after the World Cup concludes next month. Other reports have also claimed that Naqvi had asked for a tri-series between India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, while also pushed for India and Pakistan to play Tests under the World Test Championship
in neutral venues.
“We did not discuss anything apart from Bangladesh, our only purpose was to get Bangladesh respect, to highlight the injustice done to them. And you saw that whatever demands Bangladesh made, they were accepted. That’s it,” Naqvi said. “We had no personal interest in the meeting … our task was purely related to Bangladesh. The government made the decision on that (basis). When their demands have been accepted, and it has been acknowledged that injustice was done to them, we are playing after that,” he added.
Officially, the ICC said that its dialogue with the PCB was only ‘as part of a broader engagement’, where they focused on the importance of unity and all parties ‘respecting their commitments’. In another statement, it announced that it would not sanction Bangladesh for refusing to travel to India for the tournament, which led to the country being removed and replaced with Scotland.
Interestingly, the BCB’s statements didn’t mention making any demands either and focused on thanking Pakistan for its solidarity in the ‘challenging time’. It needs to be seen what the reported ‘concessions’ from the ICC are, if they’d result in more India-Pakistan matches, or if Naqvi changes his tone after the World Cup.
