NEW DELHI: After a week of uncertainty, the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) have resumed talks over the Pakistan government’s call for a boycott of their T20 World Cup match against India in Colombo on February 15.The PCB approached the ICC for dialogue after the world body described the PCB’s legal moves to justify the boycott as “weak”. The PCB invoked the “force majeure” clause to avoid sanctions by the ICC for breaching the Member’s Participation Agreement (MPA).
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It emerged that the ICC had asked the PCB to explain the reasons in detail and also asked if the Pakistan board had done enough to avoid the situation. Although the PCB did not officially communicate the decision to boycott the match, it wrote to the ICC invoking force majeure, citing a government instruction it had received not to take the field against India.The ICC highlighted the conditions under which force majeure could be legitimately invoked – the basic premise of non-participation – besides mentioning the sporting, commercial and administrative implications of such a move. The ICC, as in its February 1 statement, formally warned the PCB of potential damages if it continued with the boycott.Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the boycott call was taken as a show of solidarity with Bangladesh after the ICC banned the team from the T20 World Cup after the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) refused to travel to India. A boycott could potentially result in financial losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars for Pakistan cricket.
