Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Najam Sethi has intimidated ICC counterpart Greg Barclay about their apprehensions of playing against arch-rivals India in Ahmedabad in the World Cup. Perhaps, the Men in Green don’t want any of their World Cup matches to be played in Ahmedabad unless it is a final of the tournament.
PCB wants Pakistan’s matches to be scheduled in Kolkata, Chennai and Bengaluru. “Sethi has conveyed to Barclay and Allardice that Pakistan doesn’t want it matches to be scheduled in Ahmedabad unless it is a knock-out game like final.He requested ICC to schedule their games in Chennai, Bengaluru and Kolkata if national team gets clearance from Pakistan government to travel to India for the global event scheduled in October and November,”
ICC General Manager Geoff Alardice and Barclay were recently in Pakistan to seek assurance from PCB regarding their participation in the World Cup with their hybrid model for the Asia Cup set to get rejected by the Asian Cricket Council. Moreover, the source also informed that Sethi told ICC bosses that Pakistan won’t accept the current revenue model unless its share is increased.
“Sethi pointed out that it was unfair that Pakistan should get a lesser share of the ICC revenues in the new cycle compared to Australia and England. Sethi argued that Australia and England regularly get to play bilateral series with India and their players also take part in the Indian Premier League which means extra revenues for the two boards from the IPL management,”