Pakistan don't want to play in Ahmedabad unless World Cup final, Najam Sethi to ICC

Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Najam Sethi has reportedly told his ICC counterpart Greg Barclay that the side are not keen on playing at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. He said Pakistan are not interested in playing their blockbuster clash against India in the ODI World Cup in Gujarat.

The discussion happened when Barclay and ICC General Manager Geoff Allardice travelled to Karachi to seek assurances from PCB that they would play their ODI World Cup matches in India. It comes on the heels of ACC likely to reject Pakistan’s suggestion of a ‘hybrid model’ for the Asia Cup.

PCB have maintained that they want their matches to be scheduled in Kolkata, Chennai and Bengaluru.

“Sethi has conveyed to Barclay and Allardice that Pakistan doesn’t want it matches to be scheduled in Ahmedabad unless it is a knock-out game like final,” news agency PTI quoted a senior PCB official as saying.

“He requested ICC to schedule their games in Chennai, Bengaluru and Kolkata if national team gets clearance from Pakistan government to travel to India for the global event scheduled in October and November,” the source added.

The PCB official also said Sethi has asked ICC officials to convince BCCI to accept Pakistan’s proposal for a hybrid model for the Asia Cup. Another point discussed was on the revenue model with Pakistan unwilling to accept it unless their share was increased in the next five year cycle.

“Sethi pointed out that it was unfair that Pakistan should get a lesser share of the ICC revenues in the new cycle compared to Australia and England,” the source said.

“Sethi argued that Australia and England regularly get to play bilateral series with India and their players also take part in the Indian Premier League which means extra revenues for the two boards from the IPL management,” he added.

The schedule and venues for the World Cup will be announced during the World Test Championship final at The Oval.

Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News, India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.