Former ICC boss incensed at Pakistan's Windies-killing u-turn | Digicel SportsMax
Former ICC boss incensed at Pakistan's Windies-killing u-turn
Ehsan Mani, a former International Cricket Council (ICC) president doesn't believe Pakistan is playing fair and have slammed the country's board for it.
The statements come in the wake of a situation where the West Indies and Pakistan were vying for the final spot in the eight-team Champions Trophy in 2017, with Pakistan nipping the spot after a 3-2 series win over Sri Lanka.
To make the Champions Trophy, teams have to be ranked in the top eight by September 30, 2015, but Pakistan are being accused of rigging the chase after they cancelled a tri-nation series against Zimbabwe and the West Indies once they had earned enough points to overtake them after their series against Sri Lanka.
“The fact that Pakistan has pulled out of the tri-series is simply not cricket and goes against the spirit of the game,” said Mani of the cancelled series scheduled to have been held from August 17-September 7.
Pakistan, since that time, rescheduled the dates they were available to play to September 24 - October 5.
The Pakistan team is ranked eighth with 90 points on the ICC 50 overs table, but are just two ahead of the West Indies, who are ranked ninth on 88 points.
“Unfortunately, since the ICC meddled with the binding nature of the Future Tours Programme (FTP) last year, there is no obligation on any country to stick to commitments made to tour unless these have been confirmed in a binding contact,” said Mani.
“This free for all nature of tour commitment opens it to manipulation which is exactly what has happened in this case. It also shows just how blindly the cricket boards agreed to the changes in the FTP without understanding the consequences.”
Mani's stance on the situation is made all the more interesting because he is of Pakistani descent. The former ICC president held the reigns of the international governing body of the sport from 2003-2006.