The decision to bring together the main parties to work towards a solution was made after an ICC Board meeting on Friday that lasted less than 15 minutes. The meeting emphasized finding a way to break the deadlock over the eight-team tournament. A team from PCB, led by chairman Mohsin Naqvi, was in Dubai for the meeting, although for most boards it was an online convening.
A couple of other boards will now sit with the leaders of the ICC, PCB and BCCI to work towards a solution that is acceptable to all parties. There is a suggestion that talks on the issue have been taking place over the past day, but they will continue on Friday and probably Saturday as well. Naqvi has publicly said that he was open to the BCCI discussing any issues he had in traveling to Pakistan with him, an opportunity that has now been presented to him.
In all likelihood, any proposal will have to be approved by the governments of India and Pakistan before being presented to the ICC Board for approval; The Indian government denied India permission to travel to Pakistan and, as a result, the PCB has repeatedly said that any action it takes will have to be approved by its government.
The ICC Board, which is made up of representatives from all 12 full member countries, had called Friday’s meeting with three options on the agenda for how the tournament would run:
The PCB has more or less stuck to its public stance of not wanting a hybrid model, although in recent days it has been mentioned that it depends on certain conditions, which could imply a similar reciprocal agreement for future ICC events in India. where Pakistan may now not get permission to travel. On Thursday morning, Naqvi did not directly rule out a hybrid model – as he had done in the past – but only said that any decision would have to be approved by Pakistan’s government and would be in Pakistan’s best interests.
The tournament will begin in less than 90 days, on February 19. Lahore, Karachi and Rawalpindi are the venues signed to host the games, although if a hybrid option is chosen it will involve another venue outside Pakistan. A match schedule for the tournament was approved at ICC Board meetings in October this year, although the issue of India’s travel was always going to be a hurdle.
Additional reporting by Firdose Moonda>
