LAHORE, Jan 12: The International Cricket Council (ICC) chief executive Dave Richardson said on Saturday that the ICC has a very limited role in asking any two member countries to implement its Future Tours Programme (FTP) in letter and spirit.

Answering a question regarding ICC being a silent spectator over the refusal of Bangladesh and India cricket teams to tour Pakistan, Richardson said: “It is a matter between two member countries to decide if they want to play against each other and ICC’s role in this regard is very limited.”

“The PCB has taken a good step by touring India and hopefully it will pave the way to further strengthen ties between the two countries in future,” he said.

However, the ICC chief executive maintained that the ICC has always been supporter of cricket in Pakistan and will continue to help it within its own limits. “It’s my fifth visit to Pakistan and I found people here to be absolutely cricket crazy. I have also observed here that cricket is getting more popular despite all difficulties and hindrances,” he remarked.

Praising the efforts of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), the ICC chief executive said: “I was briefed about affairs of the PCB and I feel that the PCB is working very hard in making its cricket strong, especially its domestic cricket.”

However, Richardson was non-committal about the possibility of ICC’s role in reviving international cricket in Pakistan and clearly said that it was PCB’s job to continue efforts for convincing other countries to visit Pakistan. “We are not security experts and only the two respective boards have the authority to discuss security matters,” he commented.

Dispelling the impression that the ICC had also refused to appoint its match officials when Bangladesh team gave the nod to visit Pakistan in April 2012, Richardson said: “It is a wrong impression that the ICC refused to appoint its match officials. In fact, the ICC makes a decision regarding match officials after the two boards take a mutual decision regarding any series.”

Meanwhile, PCB chairman Zaka Ashraf, who was also present on the occasion along with other PCB officials including Javed Miandad, Intikhab Alam, Subhan Ahmad and Zakir Khan among others, hailed ICC’s role in promotion of cricket in Pakistan and termed it as ‘very positive.’ “I do admit that ICC has always been very supportive and it will lend more support to us whenever we succeed in convincing any country to visit Pakistan,” he said.

The PCB chief also said that the Bangladesh Cricket Board has asked for three more days to confirm whether their national team will be touring Pakistan. “We are still hopeful of Bangladesh tour to Pakistan in near future and soon good news will emerge in this regard,” he maintained.

Zaka then thanked Richardson for coming to Pakistan over his invitation to attend the first annual award ceremony of the PCB.

To a question regarding media snub for the awards function, the PCB chief said that he had great respect for media persons but this time the PCB had given broadcast rights to a private TV channel to cover the awards ceremony.