Facing flak for pursuing a failed compensation case against the Board of Control for Cricket in India, former Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Najam Sethi on Thursday insisted it was a decision taken unanimously by his Board of Governors, PTI reported.
The ICC’s Dispute Resolution Panel on Wednesday ordered Pakistan to pay around $1.2 million to the BCCI after the world body’s rejection of the PCB’s compensation claim which blamed India for lack of bilateral series between the two nations.
Sethi, who had constantly insisted that Pakistan had the legal base to file the compensation case, came out with the clarification on Twitter after many blamed him for the heavy costs Pakistan cricket has had to incur on pursuing the case.
“The decision to go to the ICC Dispute Resolution Committee against the BCCI was taken by the PCB BoG unanimously under Chairman Shahryar Khan,” Sethi tweeted.
Sethi was heading the PCB when he signed the MOU with the BCCI as condition for supporting the Big Three governance system which was moved by India, England and Australia. The PCB, under Sethi, had also approved an amount of 100 million rupees (Rs 10 crore) to pursue the compensation claim including paying legal fees of lawyers and travel costs.
Sethi on Thursday said it is routine for losing party to pay full costs of winning party. “ICC has ordered PCB to pay only 60 percent of BCCI costs because it believes PCB had legitimate issues,” he wrote in his twitter handle.
Pakistan’s former Test batsman, Mohsin Khan said that he was just surprised at the amount of money spent by the PCB. “Really when everyone knew that every Pakistan and India bilateral series is subject to government clearances who advised the PCB it could win the compensation claim on basis of the MOU,” Khan said.
“The BCCI has insisted it can’t play Pakistan in bilateral series as its government has not given it clearance for this.”
He said even now Sethi was trying to cover up the mistake by now shifting the onus on the BOG. “Even if the BOG gave approval was it not his (Sethi’s) duty to advice them otherwise as he was heading the executive committee but it means he also believed the ICC would approve the compensation claim.”
Current PCB chairman, Ehsan Mani has said that he personally has always believed in following a path of negotiations but when he took charge the compensation claim case was in its final stages of hearing so he couldn’t do anything about it.
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