PCB challenges ICC on government non-interference directive

PCB chief operating officer Subhan Ahmed said his Board had sent the notice two months back challenging directives to Member Boards to prevent government interference in cricket matters. The ICC had told Member Boards to amend their constitutions and make them comply with the constitution of the world body.

"The ICC move is that Member Boards should tailor their constitutions to prevent any government interference in Board matters," Ahmed said.

"But we challenged them on this issue and sent a legal notice in April. Now we are in talks with them to explain our position," he said.

Ahmed pointed out that the PCB had taken the stance that every member country had its own particular environment and set up that it functioned under.

"We the PCB are ourselves a creation of the constitution which is approved by the President of Pakistan who is chief patron of the board and also vetted by the ministries of law and sports," he said.

He said that the PCB had told the ICC that it could not completely comply with the constitution of the world body because of the different environment and conditions in Pakistan .

In Pakistan, the chief patron directly appoints the person to head the Cricket Board and there are not elections for the post. Ahmed said that the PCB was also not happy with the recent move to end the rotation system regarding the appointment of ICC chief.
"In 2015, it is the turn of Pakistan and Bangladesh to nominate their respective candidates for the ICC President's post. We don't want this rotation system to end as we feel it is fair to the current policy of dividing the Test playing nations into five regions by the ICC," he said.