Sports Ministry and BCCI to discuss playing Pakistan in ICC Test Championship

11/22/2017

The BCCI have planned to meet Union Sports Minister Rajyawardhan Singh Rathore to discuss the option of playing against Pakistan in the Future Tours Programme (FTP). The ICC has introduced the Test championship which means that there is a high probability of the two teams playing a Test series.

Reports suggest that the meeting has been organized after the BCCI secretary Amitabh Choudhary claimed that the BCCI was trying their best to keep Pakistan away from the FTP. As per the report in the Indian Express, it is understood that Choudhary’s comment haven't gone well with the Union Sports Ministry as they didn’t issue any official confirmation to the BCCI regarding playing against Pakistan.

The Indian government was opposed to a bilateral series but when it comes to the ICC events, they have always given the green signal. In their last meeting, India and Pakistan played in the ICC Champions Trophy final where the Pakistan team won the tournament under Sarfraz Ahmed’s captaincy.

"In any world competition or championship, if say 20 teams play, it is not possible to play each team against each other. The problem is not having a series between India and Pakistan is something which affects international cricket to a large extent.

"So nothing can really be planned out factoring the consequences on that situation. That's being looked after. As I said, it is not necessary to play each and every team in a championship," Choudhary had said as quoted by News 18.

To maintain the charm of the Test cricket in the current day and age, the ICC has introduced the Test World Championship in which each member will play each other at least once. The Test series league will see nine teams play six series over two years which includes three home and three away, with each having a minimum of two Tests and a maximum of five and the World Test League Championship Final will be played between top two teams.

Ahead of the Special General meeting, which will be organized on December 1 in New Delhi, BCCI treasurer Anirudh Chaudhary has sent a letter to acting president CK Khanna and the acting secretary in which he asked them to share the FTP plans.

"Record my statement nobody is in the dark, all members of the Board will be sent notice of the SGM along with relevant papers on each of the agenda points.

"As far as writing letter is concerned, it's Constitution of India that has given rights to everyone to express. About not being in the loop, it's not a fact.

"Papers can't be circulated in a vacuum once the agenda is specified, it will be done when the time is right," Chaudhary said.