PCB issues legal notice to ICC for World Cup exclusion

[Guest Gunner]

All emotion, no logic Why the PCB's move to press charges against the ICC for the loss of the World Cup is misguided May 10, 2009 The PCB and its chairman, Ijaz Butt, still don't seem to have grasped the gravity of what happened in Lahore and how things have changed since © AFP The emotion behind the PCB's decision to send a legal notice to the ICC over the 2011 World Cup decision is understandable. The board, the whole country, feels isolated, victimised and targeted. Two major tournaments have been taken away from them, countries have not toured them in better times and are now unlikely to tour for some time. Those the board once thought were friends within the Asian bloc have, in their minds, not helped them. Instead, they have pushed them further to the margins. The process to exclude Pakistan, it also emerges, was not without considerable flaw. Any such decision is usually to be taken by the commercial arm of the ICC, the IDI board. That was not the case here. The subject was not on the agenda at the April meeting, and the PCB was seemingly caught unaware. Not as unaware and unprepared as it should have been, however: the ICC had, in February, asked the 2011 World Cup co-hosts to think of alternative venues should the situation worsen. After the Lahore attack, when everything changed, the PCB should not just have been thinking about such advice, it should've been acting on it. The Lahore attack, and its implications, were on the agenda of the meet. One implication was clearly the World Cup and Pakistan's place in it: would it not have made sense to have a plan at the ready to present? A proposal for Abu Dhabi and Dubai to "host" Pakistan's matches was said by PCB officials to be on the cards - after the decision was taken. Apparently such a proposal wasn't tabled at all, perhaps because board officials balked at the possible expense involved in any such move. Still, ostensibly, Pakistan feels humiliated, short-changed. A bullish, emotional response is inevitable, especially if there is a valid sense that legally a decision can be challenged. Some face also needs to be saved domestically. The problem, however, is just that: that the response is an emotional one, not one driven by cold-hearted logic. Had it been, perhaps the board might have realised that even if the decision is referred to the rightful organ, which somehow finds that Pakistan should remain a host, no country can be forced to play here. Amazingly, the board still doesn't seem to have grasped the gravity of what happened in Lahore and how things have since changed. An international cricket team was targeted by terrorists, who eventually got away. No amount of legalese will convince cricketers to visit after that. They were unwilling before the attacks, as the Champions Trophy decision attests. How can their resolve to not tour Pakistan not have been strengthened now that the government and the board have failed to provide the kind of security that was needed - even if nobody really knows what kind of security measures will suffice against such barbarism? That is the bottomline. Better it might be for the board to just move on; better than a legal notice might be a demand for a review; better it might be to try and repair a faltering relationship with the ICC and its members; better it might be for the PCB to remember the mantra of world politics, that there are no permanent friends or enemies, only permanent interests And if the Middle East as a surrogate host is an option, then the PCB has not yet made it official. Thus, a legal battle appears futile. Potentially, for a cash-strapped board, it will hurt, for lawyers come as cheap as Hollywood stars. There is also an unsavoury sense - emanating from the core of those behind this move - that Pakistan will push for the entire subcontinent to also lose out. If Pakistan is not reinstated for 2011, the board seems to be saying, then the subcontinent should host the 2015 World Cup and not this one. The PCB's statement, trying to bring in the troubles in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, confirms it. It comes across as a tasteless, anticipatory schadenfraude, taking pleasure from the potential misfortunes of others in the hope of lessening your own gloom. Whatever the situation in these countries, no team has yet been attacked there and that makes all the difference. And how easy will it be to convince those very countries whose hosting rights you are trying to derail for 2011, to cooperate with you for 2015? Do these lines even have to be written to spell this out? In the longer and broader term, logic says such a stance is disastrous, for confrontation will alienate Pakistan further. As it is, the present PCB administration is not about to write the sequel to How to Win Friends and Influence People. Their reputation within and with the ICC - it is reliably learnt - is as low as it has ever been. Better it might be for the board to just move on; better than a legal notice might be a demand for a review, having tried to garner some support or have some firm alternative in place; better it might be to try and repair a faltering relationship with the ICC and members; better it might be for the PCB to remember the mantra of world politics, that there are no permanent friends or enemies, only permanent interests; finally, better it might be to use - and not squander - some of the genuine sympathy out there for Pakistan's plight more constructively. Osman Samiuddin is Pakistan editor of Cricinfo http://content.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/current/story/403840.html

Very nice article from Osman Samiuddin. Explains the ongoing stupidity attacks of the PCB.

[Macj]

Very nice article from Osman Samiuddin. Explains the ongoing stupidity attacks of the PCB.

I get a feeling they might just win this one in court, at least theyve instilled enough fear in the ICC not to ratify the Word Cup move.

[riya]

PCB has no accountability and responsibilty themselves,but quite quick to attack others .If any one of them has an ounce of shame they would have resigned .Shameless bunch.

[Ram]

Actually, the PCB may actually win this one. It certainly looks like the decision to remove Pakistan as a co-host was taken without due procedures being followed. Pakistan maybe able to win a stay on this decision, but ultimately it will prove all too worthless because no team will be willing to go there to play cricket. So, they may get short term redress, but it will all prove futile in the end.

[donkey]

I doubt PCB security assurances hold much water since the lahore attack, so we can conveniently rule out the possibility of any future games in Pakistan. Apparently PCB is building their case around the law and order situation in the entire subcontinent. They believe they've been singled out despite the fact that the security measures are no better in the other 3 countries. So judging by their statement they want another security assessment taken in pakistan as late 18 months before the world cup and if they fail that one too, they want world cup shifted out of subcontinent altogether.

[Mamu]

I get a feeling they might just win this one in court' date=' at least theyve instilled enough fear in the ICC not to ratify the Word Cup move.[/quote'] Let us just for a moment assume that happens and ICC is forced by Court of Law to have Pakistan its share of the World Cup -- Then what? We will have 4 (and possible even SL) not wanting to play there -- which in short will end the WC -- right there. There will be no World Cup.

[Freedom]

I think Butt will issue legal notice and laugh his butt out in private of having done that. May be we should start a separate section for Butt jokes and PCB clowns. Looks like PCB wants to end the career of all paki cricketers by its good ass Butt efforts :haha:

[vvvslaxman]

http://content.cricinfo.com/pakistan/content/current/story/404012.html Pakistan news PCB confrontation with ICC intensifies Cricinfo staff May 12, 2009 Days after serving the ICC with a legal notice over its decision to remove Pakistan as 2011 World Cup co-hosts, the PCB has ratcheted up the stakes in its confrontation further, sending a letter to Michael Beloff, president of the ICC Disputes Resolution Committee, to refer the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS). "The Pakistan Cricket Board...has now sent a letter to Hon Michael Beloff QC, President of ICC Disputes Resolution Committee, to refer the matter to arbitration tribunal appointed in accordance with the rules of Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) to be held in United Kingdom," said a statement released by the board today. The board has challenged the removal as being in contravention of ICC Articles of Association and also to the Host Agreement of 2006, whereby the World Cup was awarded jointly to India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Haroon Lorgat, the ICC chief executive, did not comment on the issue. "I believe it's better for me to say less on it," he told Cricinfo. "It is the subject of a dispute and we'll have to deal with it." The PCB said that "since the decision was taken by ICC executive board the PCB deems it appropriate that in the interest of justice, equity and fair play the matter should be adjudicated by CAS rather than the ICC disputes resolution committee." The board has asked the ICC to expedite the matter. The letter to Beloff has been sent through Mark Gay of DLA Piper, who will be assisted by Taffazul Rizvi, the PCB's legal advisor, the statement said. There is a feeling within the board that they have been targeted by certain members of the ICC, who have used the situation to their advantage. :haha: It is believed that Pakistan are willing to pursue the option of Abu Dhabi and Dubai as a 'surrogate' host for Pakistan's matches, though no official proposal has yet been tabled. In its legal notice to cricket's governing body earlier, the PCB called the decision to do so discriminatory and "legally flawed" after the ICC, at a recent board meeting in Dubai, decided to take away Pakistan's share of the World Cup matches. The move came after terrorist attacks on the Sri Lankan team during their February-March tour, which was itself the first major bilateral contest in Pakistan since October 2007. A number of teams since then had refused to visit in the wake of an unsettled and increasingly violent domestic backdrop. © Cricinfo

[vvvslaxman]

http://thenews.jang.com.pk/updates.asp?id=77572 PCB seeks Asian Block support Updated at: 2125 PST, Wednesday, May 13, 2009 LAHORE: The Chairman of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), Ijaz Butt has decided to visit the cricket playing nations of Asia to garner their support. According to PCB sources, the board planned this move keeping in view of its strained relations with the ICC after the country was stripped of hosting the World Cup. Ijaz Butt will leave for Sri Lanka, Bangaladesh and India in next few days.

[Zap_Brannigan]

Werent they just accusing us just a few weeks back of backstabbing them? Now they want our help . TYpical paki mentality...Just like they accuse US of all things bad with pakiland and still hold a begging bowl

[EnterTheVoid]

Zap, can you please stop calling them beggars. I feel sympathetic towards beggars. Its exactly the opposite towards everything Pakistan Cricket

[Zap_Brannigan]

But expect-handout-ers is not a word.......yet