LAHORE: Showing serious concern over the International Cricket Council (ICC) policy of including Pakistan-India matches in the first round of almost all its events, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has asked the game’s world governing body for the rationale behind it, Dawn reliably learnt on Saturday.

The PCB wrote the letter to the ICC last week and is awaiting its reply.

In the letter, the PCB has pointed out that the ICC earns huge revenue through Pakistan-India ties in international events like the T20 and 50-over World Cups, in the Champions Trophy events as well as the Junior World Cups, but in return the PCB does not get any substantial benefit of that.

The BCCI, it may be mentioned, gets a lion’s share in the ICC income and gets a very lucrative return from Pakistan-India matches.

The PCB has strongly raised the point that it seems only the ICC and the BCCI are the beneficiaries of the handsome dividends gained from Pakistan-India games while the PCB stands nowhere in this equation.

It may be mentioned here that the two neighbouring countries have not played bilateral cricket since 2013 due to political tensions.

Furthermore, the ICC has not been able not play any significant role in convincing the BCCI to restore bilateral cricket ties with Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2021