Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Shaharyar Khan on Friday said Pakistan wants the Future Tours Programme (FTP) to be drawn up by the International Cricket Council (ICC), like in the past, instead of the new system whereby tours are scheduled through bilateral agreement.
Khan said reversion to the earlier standard was crucial for equality among ICC full members, and was a major reason for PCB’s vocal opposition to the constitutional revamp of the ICC last year.
Khan’s comments come after newly appointed ICC chairman, Shashank Manohar, criticised the imbalance of power within cricket’s governing body following the revamp that took place earlier.
Manohar, who replaced N. Srinivasan before his scheduled term was to end, called the revamp ‘bullying’.
The new ICC chief said there were several faults in the ICC that he hoped to address as he serves his term as chairman, which ends June 2016.
Khan agreed with Manohar, emphasising that the PCB was against the move when it was proposed.
“We have two basic principles: everyone should be equal, and the FTP should be carefully handled. It should have the previous formula with ICC arranging series and not bilateral arrangements. Otherwise we are letting some countries suffer – some countries that don’t want to play the minor ones because playing them isn’t a lucrative deal,” said Khan.
“They said we are already outvoted by 9-1, but look we want to show the world a unanimous decision. Then they offered us very lucrative series against India, as you know six series between 2015 and 2023.
“Then we signed an agreement [for the series] before we agreed to sign the new constitution,” he said.
“It was obvious that we were a reluctant supporter of the Big Three. Many people interpreted that this was because of the relations between India and Pakistan.
“It is always perceived that whatever we do, they oppose it, and whatever they do, we oppose. But this is not really correct as the boards have always had cordial relations.
“We opposed it because the Big Three should not monopolise the cricketing ties with each other – they were anticipating playing only lucrative series and countries like Zimbabwe, New Zealand were left to find their own bilateral series which obviously are not as lucrative,” added the PCB chief.
Khan went on to say that Manohar’s remarks were encouraging, and that the PCB is negotiating terms for first of the six promised bilateral series with the BCCI, adding that he expected BCCI to honour its agreement with the PCB.
“We still feel that the Big Three formula is not ideal, but since we have signed it we will go along with this and be faithful to it,” he said.
“We signed on the basis that India will play us – that was the agreement. So we expect to play.
“But if there is any move initiated to revise the constitution to a more democratic formula, we will of course support it,” added Shaharyar.
