DUBAI: Former external affairs minister Salman Khurshid on Tuesday justified India’s refusal to play bilateral cricket series with Pakistan during the ICC’s Disputes Resolution Comm­ittee hearing into a compensation claim against the BCCI, a Board official said.

The hearing, which began on Monday, will decide whether the BCCI is to pay the $70m damages sought by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for not honouring a so-called Memorandum of Understanding to play six bilateral series between 2015 and 2023. The BCCI has maintained that the MoU is not legally binding.

“Khurshid’s presence definitely took the PCB by surprise. They were not expecting a former minister for external affairs to come in for cross-examination. Also a legal expert. He gave UPA II’s stand on why India didn’t tour Pakistan post the Mum­bai terror attacks in 2008,” the BCCI official told Press Trust of India news agency, quoting from Khurshid’s statement in the court, on condition of anonymity.

Khurshid, who was the external affairs minister during the UPA-II government which finished its term in 2014, was presented by the BCCI as one of its prime defence witnesses on Tues­day. He, however, could not be reached for a comment on his statement at the hearing.

“During the cross-examination Khurshid told the ICC’s Dispute Resolution Forum that the erstwhile UPA government acted on various world intelligence agencies’ reports on threat perception of playing cricket in Pakistan. He explained why it was impossible to send Indian cricket team to Pakistan after terror attacks,” the official added.

The official also claimed that Khurshid stuck to the oft-stated Indian government stand that bilateral engagements with Pakistan cannot resume without an end to cross-border terrorism.

Published in Dawn, October 4th, 2018