With arch rivals India and Pakistan set to face each other once again on Sunday in their Super 4 match in Asia Cup in UAE, the talk this week has been about the decisions taken by Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) after the clash between the two teams last Sunday. With PCB demanding the removal of match referee Andy Pycroft over the issue of Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav refraining from any customary interaction with his counterpart Salman Ali Agha and the Indian team’s refusal to shake hands with Pakistan team, the days post the match saw PCB threatening to boycott their match against UAE. Former PCB chairman Najam Sethi has revealed how the board’s current chief Mohsin Naqvi had almost taken the decision to ‘boycott’ the tournament and how he stepped in to stop “irreparable damage” in that scenario.
“The decision was already taken. The mood was such that, ‘under public pressure, let’s boycott. Let the Asia Cup go to hell, let the ICC go to hell.’ My attitude has always been that you should stay within legal boundaries and not leave the international arena. When I was called, my friends told me, ‘Don’t go, don’t support him.’ I hadn’t gone to support Mr. Mohsin Naqvi. I went to help the Pakistan Cricket Board,” Sethi told Pakistan’s Samaa TV.
“If what he was attempting had succeeded, Pakistan would have suffered irreparable damage. We could have been sanctioned by the Asian Cricket Council (ACC), penalized by the International Cricket Council (ICC), foreign players might have refused to play in the PSL, and we stood to lose $15 million in ACC broadcasting rights. It would have been an existential crisis for PCB.”
Pakistan cancelled their pre match press conference ahead of the Super 4 match against India on Sunday, the last one week had seen PCB and ICC in an entangling situation. Last minute negotiations had led to Pakistan playing against UAE after an hour’s delay and PCB had announced later that match referee Andy Pycroft had apologised for the miscommunication about the handshake between the two captains. According to reports, ICC had reprimanded PCB for breaching the Player and Managers’ protocol. With the PCB media manager using his mobile phone prohibited in the PMOW according to the ICC’s code of code of conduct, media reported that ICC Caeo Sanjog Gupta wrote a strongly-worded letter to PCB for PCB media manager recording the meeting attended by Pycroft, Pakistan captain Salman Agha, head coach Mike Hesson, team manager Naveed Akram Cheema, media manager Naeem Gillani and the ICC general manager of cricket Wasim Khan.
Earlier this week, Naqvi had addressed a press conference detailing what PCB was planning to do post the India-Pakistan match controversy. “As you all know, there has been a crisis going on since 14th September. We had objections about the role of the match referee (Andy Pycroft). Just a short while back, the match referee had a conversation with the team coach, captain and manager. He said that this incident (no handshakes) should not have happened. We had also requested the ICC earlier to set up an inquiry on the code violation during the match. We believe that politics and sports can’t go together. This is sports, and let it remain a sport. Cricket should be separate from all this.
I requested Sethi saab and Rameez Raja saab. If we had to go for a boycott, which was a very big decision – the prime minister, government officials and lots of other people were also involved, and we got their full support. We were monitoring the issue,” Naqvi had said.
