LAHORE, May 9 The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Saturday served a legal notice to the International Cricket Council (ICC), challenging the world governing body's decision to strip Pakistan of its right to host the 2011 World Cup matches on the pretext of security concerns.
Addressing a media conference here on Saturday, PCB Chairman Ijaz Butt stressed the ICC decision, besides being discriminatory, lacked legality and fairness.
“The PCB has served a legal notice through Mark Gay of DLA Piper, London, to the ICC over its decision to remove Pakistan as host of the 2011 World Cup. Gay has been assisted by Taffazzul Rizvi, PCB's legal adviser,” Ijaz said while reading out a written statement.
“The PCB believes the manner in which the decision [regarding 2011 World Cup] was taken was legally flawed and the decision to revoke Pakistan's status as a host [country] on security grounds while not reviewing that of the other co-hosts of the 2011 tournament was unfair and discriminatory,” he added.
“We are most concerned over the manner in which the ICC took this decision. There was no notice prior to the meeting that a decision of this nature would be taken. There was neither a proper security assessment of Pakistan nor of the other co-hosts of the 2011 tournament.
“We believe that more could and should have been done to review the actual situation to deal with the matter on a non-discriminatory basis,” the PCB chief insisted.
He further said the matter had been submitted to the president of the ICC's dispute resolution committee.
“He [the president] can either refer the matter to the dispute resolution committee which is made up of ICC officials or to independent arbitration before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
“The PCB prefers impartial arbitration, in the interest of justice, equity and fair play.
“The PCB will push for this matter to be expedited so the PCB status can be restored as soon as possible,” he said.
The ICC, surprisingly, removed Pakistan from the list of four host countries for the 2011 world event at a meeting in Dubai on April 17-18.
“It is very surprising that the decision [of depriving Pakistan of 2011 World Cup matches] was passed in a meeting which was not even authorised to do so. As per procedure, it is the IDI Board [a commercial institution of the ICC], and not the Executive Board, that is only authorised to make recommendations to the Meeting of Members of the ICC which is the annual conference and which alone is authorised to take a decision on it.
“The ICC Executive Board in which this decision was made on April 17, has purposed to exercise a power which vests only in the IDI,” the chairman explained.
The PCB head highlighted that the security situation in Bangladesh was not exemplary as recently it had cancelled Pakistan's tour to their country for five ODIs in March, due to a mutiny.
He added similarly, Sri Lanka was engaged in a longstanding civil war while India, he said, due to the law and order situation, had to relocate the IPL to South Africa although the official reason given was that the IPL schedule clashing with the general elections.
Recently, he continued, Australia had refused to send its tennis team to India for a Davis Cup tie, which was due to be held in Chennai.
“If security and safety was the only reason [for switching World Cup games to be hosted by Pakistan], no security assessment of the other three co-hosts has been done,” the chairman stated.
The ICC, not only had rejected Pakistan as hosts of the World Cup, but also quickly had allocated the Pakistan's share of matches to India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, raising doubts of its discrimination towards Pakistan. But the ICC's hasty decision also showed that except Pakistan all its members were behind the move.
And the PCB on realising it has no support from other members, has decided to take a legal step.
Asked if he had not opposed the decision at the ICC meeting, Ijaz said as the point was not on the agenda he could only brief the meeting over the Lahore incident, but later, Ijaz said, the ICC announced its surprising decision.
To another question, the chairman avoided speaking on what happened in the meeting over the issue, saying he did not want to breach the ICC Code of Conduct.
Ijaz claimed that under the host agreement, prior to taking any decision on relocation of matches, the PCB should have been given an option to solve the situation.
The chairman said after the ICC had taken the decision in haste, it was the only option left for the PCB to get its right.
“I would like to fight for our due right instead of keeping silence and the step has been taken after taking the government into confidence,” he said.
However, on a query, the chairman said the PCB Governing Board had not been consulted before taking the step, since it was premature.
He said the notice gives the ICC six weeks to reverse the decision and after having their reply, the Governing Board would be consulted.
Ijaz, however, was tight-lipped that since the PCB had fired the first shot, so, the Governing Board, the supreme body should have been consulted.
“The PCB has consulted legal experts and former chairmen of the cricket board on the issue and we hope for a positive result,” he said.
Since huge financial expenditures are being involved in fighting the case at the Court of Arbitration, a formal approval from the Governing Board members was necessary.