The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Wednesday constituted a three-member conflict resolution committee after the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) initiated a dispute resolution process against the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

The panel — comprising Michael Beloff, Jan Paulsson and Annabelle Bennett — will conduct a three-day hearing in Dubai to arbitrate in the legal dispute between the two cricketing nations.

The dates for the hearing will be communicated to all parties in due course and the decision of the dispute panel and the reasons therefore will be made public.

In a notice sent to the world cricketing body in November 2017, the PCB had asked the ICC to set up a Dispute Resolution Committee to adjudicate the matter.

The notice was sent after PCB sent a $70 million 'Notice of Dispute' to BCCI for breaching the 2014 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two cricketing bodies, in which six bilateral series were scheduled to take place between 2015 and 2022.

Since BCCI did not respond to the notice, PCB took the next step under ICC rules to request an arbitration panel.

Of the six bilateral series initially agreed upon in the MoU signed in 2014, revenue from four series was supposed to go to Pakistan and two series were meant to generate money for India.

Najam Sethi, then PCB executive committee chairman, while talking to the press in December 2016, had said, “PCB has suffered a loss of $200 million because India refused to play the promised series against Pakistan.”

With Pakistan-India ties consistently at a low, it is unlikely that the arch-rivals will be playing a series against each other in the near future.

The Notice of Dispute was the latest in a series of events that characterise the PCB-BCCI tussle.

When India first refused to participate in a cricket series with Pakistan, PCB's top executives, including Sethi and Shaharyar Khan, paid a visit to Mumbai in October, 2015 on invitation of then BCCI president Shashank Manohar and secretary Anurag Thakur.

The meeting got cancelled as Shiv Sena 'hooligans' stormed the BCCI headquarters, disrupting any chances of the two boards meeting to discuss the possibility of reviving bilateral series, which at that point had been at a halt for eight years.

The PCB, after repeated failed efforts to revive cricketing ties with India decided to take legal action, and filed its notice to the BCCI.

Opinion

Editorial

A new direction
Updated 18 Mar, 2025

A new direction

While kinetic response may temporarily disable violent actors, it will not address underlying factors providing ideological fuel to insurgencies.
BTK settlement
18 Mar, 2025

BTK settlement

WHEREVER the money goes, controversy follows. The PMLN-led federal government, which recently announced that it will...
Sugar crisis
18 Mar, 2025

Sugar crisis

GREED knows no bounds. But the avarice of those involved in the sugar business — from manufacturers to retailers...
NAP revival
Updated 17 Mar, 2025

NAP revival

This bloody cycle of violence will continue unless action is complemented with social, economic, political efforts in Balochistan and KP.
New reality
17 Mar, 2025

New reality

THE US retreat from global climate finance commitments could not have come at a worse time. Pakistan faces an...
Killer traffic
17 Mar, 2025

Killer traffic

MYSTERIOUS and unstoppable. It is these words that perhaps best describe the recent surge in traffic-related...