Karachi: Former chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Zaka Ashraf said he sent the national team to India, in 2012, as a goodwill gesture to break the ice between two arch rivals.
“India were free as England departed on a Christmas break. The BCCI requested PCB and we toured India as a goodwill gesture to play series of limited-over games. All the expenses, barring air-tickets, were borne by the BCCI”, Zaka Ashraf told reporters here on Friday.
The former PCB chairman added that on the sidelines of the tour, he had a cordial meeting with his Indian counterpart Srinivasan regarding bilateral series.
“Srinivasan agreed to send India team to Pakistan upon security arrangements to their satisfaction”, Zaka Ashraf said. “A security plan was also discussed which I relayed to the then Pakistan interior minister Rehman Malik”, Zaka Ashraf added.
Zaka Ashraf, while commenting on the latest development, opined that Pakistan’s case against the BCCI, for compensation, is weak because there is no such provision in the bilateral agreement.
“I was also given the same proposal during the ICC meeting in 2014 and the BCCI sought support for the “BIG3” model in return.
I demanded to insert the clause to approach international court of arbitration as well”, Zaka Ashraf claimed.
“Without the court of arbitration clause the MoU between BCCI and PCB is mere piece of paper”, former PCB chairman stressed.
Zaka Ashraf also touched upon the latest spot fixing scandal, maintaining that PCB officials should be blamed as well for a ‘fragile’ anti-corruption mechanism.