Shaharyar Khan says PCB are ready to take legal action against BCCI

What’s the story?

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief Shaharyar Khan hasn’t ruled out taking the BCCI to court after India’s refusal to play against Pakistan in a bilateral series and honour the Memorandum of Understanding signed by India. He admitted that they are looking into the legal options as not playing India has cost PCB millions of dollars.

Speaking to PTI, Khan said: "Our legal preparations are complete but first we will take up the issue of the scheduled series with India in November-December this year at the ICC meeting next month. We want to first talk with the new representatives of Indian cricket board in the ICC meeting and ask them about the status of the scheduled series under the MOU signed between both boards in 2014.

"We have lost at least two home series against India and that calculates to millions of dollars in revenues for us. We have not ruled out legal processes to be compensated for our huge losses caused by the refusal of India to play us.”

Extra Cover: Pakistan could replace India with Sri Lanka or Bangladesh for a home series

In case you didn’t know...

Due to the political tension between the two countries, Pakistan and India haven’t played each other outside ICC competitions since 2012 when there was a one-off limited-over series.

While security issues have meant that Pakistan haven’t been able to host anyone in their country, India have refused to play their arch-rivals in neutral venues as well and haven’t honoured the MoU when they were scheduled to play Pakistan at the end of 2017 (November-December).

The Details

After successfully hosting the final of the Pakistan Super League in Lahore, PCB are keen to show that they are heading in the right direction as far as bringing cricket back to Pakistan is concerned but India have refused to budge as far as honouring their MoU is concerned.

PCB also claims it has lost nearly $200 million in revenue as a result of there being no home series against India.

Watch: 2015 World T20 game between India and Pakistan

What's next?

It will be interesting to see what happens next. Fans will be hoping for some India-Pakistan matches outside ICC competitions but it looks as though that is unlikely given everything that is transpiring.

Author’s Take

The fact that the PCB has decided to take India's decision to not hold their end of the bargain to the ICC meeting and then possibly into a legal tussle does sound ominous for the BCCI, who are currently in transition, after the overhaul caused by the Lodha Committee recommendations.

The PCB are well within their rights to take the BCCI to court but the fact that they have decided to go through proper channels and have a legal tussle as a last resort certainly makes for intriguing decision-making and it remains to be seen what happens next.