LAHORE: Former chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Zaka Ashraf who had stoutly resisted the Big-Three formula at the ICC during his tenure, on Thursday expressed his delight that finally common sense had prevailed at the game’s governing body and the Indian cricket board (BCCI) was voted out on governance structure and revenue model in Wednesday’s ICC meeting at Dubai.

“Until my last days in the PCB office (in 2014) I stood my ground and opposed the Big-Three formula as it was against the basic rules of equality and justice. But, unfortunately, other cricketing countries except Sri Lanka at the time favoured the ridiculous formula and it was approved.

“And when I left the Board, Mr. Najam Sethi [as the new chairman] accepted it and then Sri Lanka too became ineffective with the BCCI succeeding to get support of all ten member countries to push the Big-Three formula through,” said Zaka while talking to Dawn on Thursday.

“Much as we were only two members (Pakistan and Sri Lanka), we had adopted a principled stance at the ICC. Also, the independent world of cricket raised voices against the Big Three formula and praised Pakistan’s stand.

“Had Pakistan been able to stick to its earlier principled stance, it would now have earned a lot of respect among the member nations of the ICC,” commented the former PCB chief.

“But Mr Sethi changed our principled stand in return for signing of MoUs with the BCCI for the resumption of bilateral series between Pakistan and India which to this day remains unfulfilled as the BCCI hardly ever gave any respect to the MoUs after getting Pakistan’s support on the Big-Three formula at the ICC,” Zaka pointed out.

“We earned nothing for changing our stance in favour of India and are still considering whether to sue the BCCI for not implementing the MoUs,” he further said.

“Now I would like to ask Mr. Sethi, who always wants to get credit of all good work, to explain what Pakistan gained after signing MoUs with India,” said Zaka.

“In fact, the cricket boards in England and Australia were also under tremendous pressure at home against the unmerited Big-Three formula and eventually forced them to change their stance. So much as former ECB chief Giles Clarke had to appear before the House of Common to face criticism for supporting the Big-Three formula. Cricket Australia also faced huge opposition from their cricketers,” Zaka disclosed.

Under the Big-Three formula adopted in 2014, India, Australia and England were recognized as big three countries who succeeded in getting the lions’ share of revenue from the ICC.

However, the ICC in its recently-held meeting in Dubai passed a resolution in favour of new constitution under which there would be no Big-Three formula.

On the other hand, many former and current cricketers raised voices against the Big-Three formula as India along with its two partners — England and Australia - continued to siphon off major chunk of ICC revenue.

However, it was the former BCCI president and incumbent ICC chairman Shashank Manhohar who vociferously campaigned against the Big-Three formula and finally succeeded in checkmating India by mustering support of the majority member countries at the ICC meeting on Wednesday in Dubai.

“No doubt, Manohar deserves full credit for making all-out efforts to end the unfair Big-Three formula which was bound to cause financial losses to Pakistan and other countries,” said the former PCB chief.

Published in Dawn, April 28th, 2017