'It didn't seem that he was representing the ICC. It was okay at one stage but than he spoke mostly defending the BCCI's position of not playing Pakistan in bilateral cricket series since 2007.'
The Pakistan Cricket Board is miffed that International Cricket Council chairman Shashank Manohar defended BCCI's decision to not play bilateral series with them during the arbitration meeting on their decision to file a compensation claim of US$ 70 million against the Indian Cricket Board.
According to reliable sources, the PCB team which attended the arbitration meetings held in Dubai and London, was disappointed with the way Manohar outlined India’s point of view in the compensation case.
"It didn't seem that he was representing the ICC. It was okay at one stage but than he spoke mostly defending the BCCI's position of not playing Pakistan in bilateral cricket series since 2007," a PCB source disclosed.
"He didn't appear to be in favour of a case being filed with the ICC," the source added.
PCB chairman Najam Sethi announced this week that it would file a compensation claim before the ICC disputes resolution committee in January, 2018.
"The name of the arbitrator who will head the ICC committee had also been finalised and will be announced soon," the source said.
Pakistan has filed the compensation claim on the grounds that the Board of Control for Cricket in India had signed a MoU with them and were mandated to play six bilateral series between 2015 and 2023 and until now had not played even one.
Recently, a team of PCB officials and legal experts also met with the ICC legal team to finalize the terms of reference for the disputes resolution committee working.
"Initially PCB team had expressed reservations over some aspects of the TORs but the ICC later modified these and the PCB is now satisfied with them. One clause is that the decision of the disputes resolution committee will be final and binding on both parties and they can’t go to other avenues for appeals.”
The PCB source said that the Board is expecting the ICC disputes resolution committee to give a decision within six months of the filing of the case in January.
"We are expecting the first hearing within 30 days of the time we file the claim."
