PCB files legal notice against BCCI

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has sent a legal notice to the BCCI for failing to fulfil the norms of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the two boards in 2014. It was focussed upon the fixtures of series to be played between the two nations in the period of 2015-2023.

The MoU had clauses for a series to be conducted between Pakistan and India in 2015 which the BCCI failed to conduct. Reports of the issue mention that the PCB incurred a loss of about $60 million on account of the media rights of the board’s broadcasting deal. The notice also affirmed that Pakistan would not tour India in 2018 as scheduled in the MoU because the bilateral fixtures had to start with Pakistan as hosts.

The MoU had provisions for a total of six bilateral series in the period 2015-2023. The first series as mentioned was to be held in Pakistan in 2015 and the second in 2018 in India. It totally drafted fixtures for 14 Tests, 30 ODIs, and 12 T20Is. India and Pakistan have not played a single complete series since 2008 after the Mumbai terror attacks. Their last series was held in India in 2007. There were attempts to resolve the problems between the nations in 2012 when Pakistan visited India on a limited overs tour.

The PCB wanted to take a legal route against BCCI but the ICC Dispute Resolution Committee’s terms of reference in Clause 5 binds all ICC members to have good-faith negotiations and make three attempts to resolve the dispute. The BCCI now has seven days to respond to the notice. The failure to respond will result in the formation of a panel from the ICC Dispute Resolution Committee. A positive response will see both the boards meet and try to solve the issue through negotiations.

“We have initiated the legal process by sending BCCI a Notice of Dispute under the Dispute Resolution Committee Terms of reference of the International Cricket Council,” said the PCB chairman Shahryar Khan. “PCB has claimed the losses and damage suffered by it, which comes to around $60 million, as a result of BCCI’s breaches of the agreement,” he added.

The BCCI has been on a continuous basis negligent over the requests from PCB to abide by the norms of the MoU. The PCB wants the Indian cricket board to honour its commitment of six series between 2015-2023 under the MoU, which is subjected to clearance from the Government of India.