Thakur asks ICC not to club India, Pakistan together in tournaments

MUMBAI: The mounting cross border tension between India and Pakistan has started to take its toll on cricket.

With Anurag Thakur already ruling out any bilateral series with Pakistan in the backdrop of recent terror attacks, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president, who is also a BJP MP, on Friday said the Board will request the world governing body, ICC, to keep India and Pakistan in separate groups in multi-nation tournaments like the World Cups and the Champions Trophy.

“Keeping in mind that the government has adopted a new strategy to isolate Pakistan and in view of the public sentiment in the country, we request ICC not to put India and Pakistan in the same pool of the multination tournaments,” PTI quoted Thakur as saying.

It was reported that the IndoPak issue was discussed on the sidelines of the Special General Meeting here at the Cricket Centre. OPENING MATCH Ironically, India will start its Champions Trophy title defence against Pakistan at Edgbaston on June 4, 2017. The ICC, however, has already clarified that the teams are grouped on the basis of rankings as on 30 September 2015. To ensure that the two groups are balanced, the ICC ensures that the total points (achieved through teams’ ranking) of each group is 18.

Meanwhile, Thakur and the BCCI top brass avoided the media after adjourning Friday’s SGM. The adjournment may invite fresh trouble for them as it may lead to contempt of court with the BCCI failing to implement the Lodha Committee’s first set of reforms within the deadline. The meeting was adjourned on technical grounds as around 15 state representatives did not have an appropriate letter of authorisation. TOO MUCH SCRUTINY “Some letters did not mention that the representative is authorised to take decisions. So we have given them a day to put things in order,” BCCI official Rajeev Shukla said.

However, many BCCI members whom HT spoke to were surprised with so much scrutiny of an authorisation letter. “There has never been so much emphasis on the authorisation letter before. Maybe the BCCI lawyers are being extra careful and taking every precaution before the members make a big decision,” said a member.

The SGM’s single point agenda is to “consider directions” of the Lodha panel recommendations. But the BCCI also has to amend constitutions of state associations, establish 15-day gap between national calendar and IPL, amend anti-corruption and related codes of IPL, amend player-agent registration norms, decide order of the rotational vote in states with more than one association, decide on fund disbursements among members, establish transparency of tenders, make Pondicherry an Associate member and initiate work on players’ association.

“Keeping in mind that the government has adopted a new strategy to isolate Pakistan and in view of the public sentiment in the country, we request ICC not to put India and Pakistan in the same pool of the multination tournaments, ANURAG THAKUR, BCCI president IT WAS REPORTED THAT THE INDO-PAK ISSUE WAS DISCUSSED ON THE SIDELINES OF THE SPECIAL GENERAL MEETING HERE AT THE CRICKET CENTRE