Najam Sethi to ICC bosses: Pakistan don’t want to play in Ahmedabad unless they are in WC final

PTI, Jun 7, 2023, 5:21 PM IST

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The Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Najam Sethi has intimated his ICC counterpart Greg Barclay about his apprehensions about playing the World Cup match against arch-rivals India at Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium, according to sources.

As it was reported by PTI initially, PCB wants its matches to be scheduled in Kolkata, Chennai and Bengaluru.

Barclay and ICC General Manager Geoff Allardice were recently in Karachi to seek assurance from PCB boss that they won’t demand to play their ODI World Cup matches at a neutral venue since ACC is all set to reject its demand of playing Asia Cup on basis of ‘Hybrid Model’.

According to a senior PCB source: ”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,” the source added.

While Pakistan board is apprehensive about the security of its players if they have to play India in Ahmedabad, it must be mentioned that Inzamam ul Haq led side had played at the Motera during its 2005 tour to India.

The PCB official also informed that Sethi has asked ICC officials to convince BCCI to accept Pakistan’s Hybrid Model for Asia Cup, which is unlikely to see the light of the day.

He also confirmed that Sethi had also insisted that it would not accept the new revenue sharing model unless its share was increased in the new five year cycle.

”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,” the source said.

”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,” he added.

The BCCI and ICC officials who are presently in London for the World Test Championship Final are expected to finalize the schedule and venues for the World Cup in the next few days before it is circulated to the member/participating countries.